Transfer (association football)

In association football, a transfer is the action taken whenever a player moves between clubs. It refers to the transferring of a players registration from one club to another. In general the players can only be transferred during a transfer window and according to the rules set by a governing body.

Method

When a footballer is under contract with a club, he can only leave if the club agrees to terminate this contract. As a way of compensation, the club to whom the player is transferring will usually pay a capital sum. This is known as the 'transfer fee'. As part of the transfer deal, a proportion of the fee may go to the player himself and any agents involved in the deal. Again, the exact percentage is subject to the regulations of the relevant governing body.

Historically, transfer fees were paid even when the player was out of contract (except in Spain), but since the Bosman ruling, this is no longer the case. This ruling occurred when the European Union declared that the practice of demanding a fee for players out of contract was illegal. However, in order to secure an income for smaller clubs, UEFA regulations still state that a fee must be paid for players under the age of 23. This may be set by a tribunal if it cannot be agreed upon between the two clubs.

Transfers may also involve a part-exchange, in which some or all of the capital fee is paid for by trading another player from the signing club to the selling club. Other methods of paying a transfer fee include:

Clauses depending on the player's success at the signing club (e.g. an extra fee if the player scores a total of 20 goals in his first season, or makes a given number of appearances)
Clauses depending on the signing club's success following the transfer
Clauses allowing the selling club to profit from any future transfers of the player (a "sell-on fee"). A notable example of a club that benefited from such a clause is Accrington Stanley, whose rise from the lower reaches of non-league English football to their current position in League Two was given a significant boost by the sell-on clause that was negotiated in the transfer of Brett Ormerod.
Friendly matches between the two teams, in which the selling club receives all the gate receipts
The introduction of other reciprocal arrangements e.g. the signing club may agree to aid the selling club by the improvement of training facilities, or sharing of resources and coaches
In lower leagues payment in terms of goods, notably playing kit and equipment has occasionally occurred.

Additionally, a single fee may be used to buy the registration of many players at once.

FIFA's solidarity mechanism

On 19 October 2003 FIFA issued regulations and annexes that cover training compensation and a solidarity mechanism for the movement of players across borders.

If a player moves during the course of a contract, after reaching the age of 23 or after his second transfer (whichever comes first), a proportion (5%) of any compensation paid to the previous club will be distributed to the club(s) involved in the training and education of the player. This distribution will be made in proportion to the number of years the player has been registered with the relevant clubs between the age of 12 and 23.

The nature of the 5% that comes from the solidarity mechanism is in some sense a return in investment for the nursery club.

Highest transfer fees

The following table shows the highest transfer fees ever paid in British Pounds. Using a different currency (the Euro being the most relevant) produces a slightly different list due to exchange rate fluctuations. The great majority of transfer fees over £10 million have been paid by clubs in England, Italy or Spain.

European football experienced a "transfer bubble" fuelled by rapidly rising television rights sales between 1999 and 2002, and fees then fell away significantly. The most expensive transfer since that time was Manchester City's purchase of Robinho in 2008, for a fee of £32.5 million ^[1].

Of the transfers in the list below, Rio Ferdinand's included performance related clauses, as may some of the other deals. This leads to different figures being given by different sources. Such performance related clauses have become more common since the bursting of the transfer bubble, meaning that it is harder to produce definitive lists of the largest transfer fees than was the case in the past.

In January 2009, it was reported that Manchester City had made an offer of over £100m for the AC Milan player Kaká. If signed, this would have been the largest ever transfer fee, more than doubling the previous record. Ultimately, the deal collapsed.^[2] The proposed deal sparked a widespread debate on the ethics and sustainability of such large transfer fees.

Rank	Player	From	To	Transfer Fee (£ millions)	Transfer Fee (€ millions)	Year
1	Zinédine Zidane	Juventus	Real Madrid	46.0^[3]	76.0	2001
2	David Villa	Valencia	TBA	40.00^[4]	58.5
3	Luís Figo	Barcelona	Real Madrid	38.7^[5]	58.5	2000
4	Hernán Crespo	Parma	Lazio	35.5^[6]	53.6	2000
5	Gianluigi Buffon	Parma	Juventus	32.6^[7]	49.2	2001
6	Robinho	Real Madrid	Manchester City	32.5^[1]	49.0	2008
7	Christian Vieri	Lazio	Internazionale	32.0^[8]	48.3	1999
8	Andriy Shevchenko	Milan	Chelsea	30.8^[9]	46.5	2006
9	Dimitar Berbatov	Tottenham	Manchester United	30.75^[10]	46.4	2008
10	Pavel Nedvěd	Lazio	Juventus	30.6^[11]	46.2	2001
11	Rio Ferdinand	Leeds United	Manchester United	29.1^[12]	43.9	2002
12	Gaizka Mendieta	Valencia	Lazio	29.0^[13]	43.8	2001
13	Ronaldo	Internazionale	Real Madrid	28.49^[14]	43.0	2002
14	Juan Sebastián Verón	Lazio	Manchester United	28.1^[15]	42.4	2001
15	Wayne Rooney	Everton	Manchester United	27.0^[16]	40.8	2004