The transfer system explained — windows, contracts, free agents, loans and who gets paid
The rules under every transfer story, from FIFA's own regulations — registration periods, the five-year contract, the six-month rule, training compensation, the 5% solidarity payment, loan limits — and the reform that takes effect in January 2027.
Transfer news changes by the hour. The rules underneath it are written down in one document: FIFA's Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (the RSTP). Everything below comes from the edition in force (July 2025) and, where it differs, from the new edition FIFA approved on 10 June 2026, which takes effect on 1 January 2027.
Windows are "registration periods"
A player can only be registered with a club during one of two registration periods a season, fixed by each national association:
- the first must last between eight and twelve weeks;
- the second between four and eight weeks;
- together they may not exceed sixteen weeks.
Associations choose their own dates, which is why windows around the world do not line up. A club in a league whose window has closed can still sell to a league whose window is open — it simply cannot register a replacement.
Contracts
A professional contract runs at least until the end of the season and at most five years. Players under 18 may not sign for longer than three years; from January 2027 there is an exception, up to five years, for an under-18 who has already been registered with that club for 20 months or two seasons.
"Free transfers" and the six-month rule
A player is free to sign a contract with another club once their own has expired or is due to expire within six months. That single sentence produces the pre-contract agreements announced every January for moves the following summer.
The principle behind it is the Bosman ruling: on 15 December 1995, in Case C-415/93, the European Court of Justice held that a club could not demand a fee for an out-of-contract player moving between EU member states, and that limits on the number of EU nationals a club could field were unlawful. Out-of-contract players have moved without a fee ever since.
Who else gets paid
Two mechanisms send money back to the clubs that developed a player.
Training compensation is owed when a player is registered as a professional for the first time, and each time a professional is transferred until the end of the calendar year of his 23rd birthday. It covers training between the ages of 12 and 21. It does not apply in women's football.
The solidarity contribution applies when a player under contract is transferred for a fee: 5% of that fee is shared among the clubs that trained him between the calendar years of his 12th and 23rd birthdays. The years of the 12th to 15th birthdays earn 5% of that pot each; the years of the 16th to 23rd earn 10% each. A small club that had a future star from 12 to 16 is paid every time he moves for a fee, for the rest of his career.
Since 16 November 2022 those payments have been processed through the FIFA Clearing House, an independent entity set up in Paris, rather than left for small clubs to chase.
Loans
A loan must last at least the interval between two registration periods and at most one year. Since 1 July 2024 a club may have at most six professionals out on loan and six in at any time during a season, and no more than three with the same club in either direction. Players who are club-trained and have not passed the season of their 21st birthday are exempt, and sub-loans are prohibited.
Breaking a contract: the protected period
A contract is most heavily protected early in its life. Under the current rules the protected period is three seasons (or three years) for a contract signed before the player's 28th birthday and two for one signed after it; breaking the contract inside that period brings sporting sanctions on top of compensation.
From January 2027 it becomes age-tiered: four seasons for a contract signed under 23, three at 23 to 27, two at 28 to 31, and one at 32 or older.
Why the rules are changing
On 4 October 2024, in Case C-650/22 — the Diarra case — the Court of Justice of the EU held that parts of the RSTP on compensation and sanctions for breach of contract were contrary to EU law on free movement and competition. FIFA adopted an interim framework from 1 January 2025 covering compensation for breach of contract, joint liability of the new club, inducement to breach, transfer certificates and its tribunal procedures, and then a full rewrite, which FIFA describes as the most significant reform of the regulations since they were adopted in 2001.
Registration periods, the loan limits, the six-month rule, the 5% solidarity contribution and the training-compensation ages are unchanged in the 2027 text.
What you will not find here
This site has no database of fees or "market values". The websites that compile them either block automated readers or prohibit reuse, so we do not copy them. For who is moving where, the transfers page routes you into the search engine, by league and by club.