The Club World Cup, which has been expanded to 32 clubs, poses special challenges for clubs, as many contracts expire at the end of June. FIFA is helping out with a third transfer window.
It had been announced for months, and now it has been officially confirmed by FIFA. According to the announcement, “all associations whose clubs are participating in the landmark FIFA competition will open an extraordinary transfer window for all their affiliated clubs from June 1 to June 10 to allow their clubs to sign new players for the tournament.”
This affects the associations from Egypt, Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand, Austria, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Africa, Tunisia, the USA, and the United Arab Emirates – and Germany, of course, as Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Munich are participating.
The third transfer window was necessary because the Club World Cup will take place in the USA from June 15 to July 13. The problem is that, strictly speaking, players with expiring contracts could only play until June 30.
In addition to the new transfer window, FIFA has once again appealed to clubs to seek a solution “in the spirit of participation” for players with expiring contracts. This should ensure that the best players will ultimately compete in the US.
Thomas Müller’s contract, for example, is expiring and, as is well known, has not been extended by the German champions. However, FC Bayern will provide Müller with a contract for the tournament, so he will still be able to play a few more games. “It will be an exciting experience,” said Müller, looking forward to his last professional highlight in an FCB jersey. At Real Madrid, for example, Luka Modric and Lucas Vazquez are affected, and there are similar cases at other clubs.
Special agreement for expiring contracts
If there are no special agreements as in Müller’s case, clubs will have the opportunity to replace players between June 27 and July 3. If contracts have expired at the end of June and the player in question is no longer eligible to play, clubs are allowed to nominate up to two new players.
One question remains: What would happen if, for example, there were a player transfer between BVB and Bayern on July 1? Would the player then be allowed to play for one club in the preliminary round and for the other club in the knockout round? No, FIFA considers that to be going too far.