Fifa report proposes limits on loans
The internal Fifa report proposes changes to the transfer system
Written by Simon Austin — September 15, 2018
A FIFA task force has proposed that clubs be limited to loaning six to eight players in or out because the current system can result in “stockpiling” and “sometimes prevents young players from fully developing their talent”.
The internal report produced by the group was commissioned by President Gianni Infantino as part of a commitment to reform the transfer system. It recommends that clubs be permitted to make only six to eight loans either in or out and no more than three to or from the same club in the same season.
Chelsea currently have 40 players out on loan. Between 2013/14 and 2017/18 they loaned players to 87 clubs, with 17 going to Vitesse Arnhem alone during that period.
The report, which has been seen by Reuters, states that the loan system “sometimes prevents young players from fully developing their talent”, adding that one unnamed club had loaned out 146 players between 2011 and 2017.
There is an acknowledgement in the report that bigger, richer clubs could be using loans to hoard talent and that multiple loans to a single club could destabilise competitive balance in smaller leagues.
It also adds that “the stockpiling and subsequent loaning of players, particularly young players, can be detrimental to their development due to the unsettling nature of being on loan".
In 2016, Brazilian Lucas Piazon, who had been loaned out five times by Chelsea within four seasons and is still registered to the club, said: "It makes no sense to go on loan all the time. It is not good for any player in my experience - or the experience of the other boys.
"I don't see it as a positive thing any more. To be in a different place every year is not good for me at 22.”
And Jonathan Panzo, who left the Blues for Monaco this summer, said: “I wanted to settle down somewhere instead of going back and forth, back and forth."
The report, which has been sent to Fifa stakeholders, makes several other eye-catching recommendations about the transfer system, including:
- A cap on agent fees.
- An end to the practise of the same agent acting for both clubs and the player in a single transaction.
- Creating a clearing house to process transfers.
- Using an algorithm to benchmark a player’s price.
- Punishing clubs that surpass it with a luxury tax to be shared with the player’s previous clubs.
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