What happens during a transfer window? And are there any rules?

The January transfer window for English clubs runs from 1 January to 3 February 2025.

Over the next four weeks, expect there to be subtle shifts and perhaps larger shake-ups to each Premier League squad.

What are transfer windows?

These set periods allow teams to buy, sell and loan players, depending on things like injuries, needing to bolster certain parts of the squad or sell to bring in money – or release players to make room for others.

Transfer windows were first suggested by national football associations in the 1990s, but were not introduced in the Premier League until the 2002-03 season.

The idea was to give players and clubs more ‘contractual stability’ – stopping football agents making deals at times that could jeopardise a player’s progress throughout the season.

Managers also get reassurance that players will not be leaving for other clubs at short notice, allowing bosses to forward-plan.

What’s different about the January window?

There are two transfer windows per year. The first is in January. This marks roughly halfway through a club’s domestic season, and it is open for about four weeks.

The summer transfer window is a bit longer, usually running for a period of around two months from mid-June.

The January window is an opportunity for clubs to tweak their approach to the rest of the season – giving them the best possible changes to secure the title, push up the table, or get themselves out of a relegation scrap.

Are there any rules?

Clubs can not just let loose on spending.

That is because of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSRs), which state that over a rolling three-year period, clubs must not report losses of more than £105m.

Last season, Everton and Nottingham Forest were hit with points deductions after breaching the PSRs. PSRs have been criticised by some clubs for being overly restrictive.

Clubs must submit a squad list after the transfer window closes.

A maximum of 25 players can be named in the squad list, and at least eight of these have to be ‘home grown’. These are players who have been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association (FA) or the Football Association of Wales “for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday”.

However, clubs can still bring in under-21 players because they sit outside the squad size restrictions. For the 2024-25 season, these players must have been born on or after 1 January 2003.

Clubs can only have two players from other English clubs on loan at any one time.

What actually happens during a transfer?

Clubs can have discussions with agents and line up players before the window, but signings cannot take place until the window opens.

A player is then transferred to their new club once a transfer fee – and other add-ons like loan clauses or bonuses – have been agreed on.

Clubs will then have to provide the Premier League with all the documents needed to complete the deal, including the contract details and the conditions of the transfer.

The Premier League will then check all these documents and permissions to work in the UK, should a player be coming from overseas.

The final hurdle is for players to pass the ‘medical’ – testing everything from their body fat percentage to speed.

Who gets the money?

A transfer typically involves the buying club paying the selling club a ‘fee’, almost like compensation for the selling club losing that player.

The club that has just brought in the player will then pay their wages.

Players’ agents will get a cut of the fee, but Fifa regulations cap the proportion of the transfer value agents can earn.

Players themselves do not typically get a cut of the fee, but might secure a signing-on bonus from the buying club.

Can signings be made after the deadline?

The deadline of 23:00 GMT is the cut-off. But clubs do not have to have announced all the deals made during the window by that time.

On deadline day, clubs can sign a ‘deal sheet’, which is a note confirming a deal has been made but which buys clubs a couple more hours to finalise the official paperwork.

Deal sheets can only be utilised from 21:00 GMT on transfer deadline day.

Deal sheets are not used in the EFL or the WSL. The SPFL allows clubs until midnight to finalise deals, should they have given the league sufficient notice that a deal was running to the wire.

How can some transfers be ‘free’?

Even after the transfer window closes, teams can still sign ‘free agents’ – players who are out of contract. In these cases, no compensation will have to be paid to an existing club to release the player.

But, these players might not be able to play for their new club until the summer window, the next time clubs can officially register their squads.

Do other countries have the same transfer window?

The transfer window for European countries is broadly the same as for the Premier League, give or take a few days.

World governing body Fifa sets out two annual periods for transfer windows, with the exact timings set by each country’s football association.

This year, some countries – including Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands – have transfer windows that close a day or so later than the Premier League’s deadline of 3 February.

So, clubs from these countries’ domestic leagues could still purchase players from the Premier League, but Premier League clubs will no longer be in the market to buy.

This year, the Scottish Premiership’s transfer window closes at the same time as the Premier League’s.

When is the Women’s Super League transfer window?

The Women’s Super League (WSL) January transfer window will be open from 1 January to 30 January 2025, closing at 23:00 GMT.

Transfer windows were introduced in the WSL in 2014.

With the women’s transfer fee record being broken four times in the past two years, it looks like the bar for signing star players is constantly rising.