UEFA recommends transfer deadline date

EUROPEAN football’s governing body, UEFA, has recommended that its member associations agree to close their summer transfer windows in unison on October 5.

The UEFA Executive Committee met yesterday via video call to agree on the temporary measures that must be taken in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

With competitive seasons in Germany, Spain, Italy and England all rescheduled to continue well into the summer, United and City will now be among the clubs allowed until the autumn to register their players for the 2020/21 campaign.

Earlier this week, UEFA announced that the Champions

League and Europa League competitions will be concluded as ‘mini tournaments’, in the style of a World Cup or European Championships, in August.

The Champions League latter stages are to be played in Portugal, with the final in Lisbon. The Europa League is set to be played out in four regions – Cologne, Duisborg, Dusseldorf and Gelsenkirchen – across Germany between August 10 and 21. Questions had surrounded the upcoming summer transfer window, with FIFA initially suggesting that it would be pushed back in line with the end of domestic seasons in Europe.

A statement said: “The deadline for player registration for the group stage of the 2020/21 UEFA club competitions has been set to October 6, 2020.

“The UEFA executive committee called on all member associations to adopt a harmonised end date to the upcoming summer transfer window, with this date set as October 5, 2020.”

The governing body also confirmed clubs will get an extra month, until July 31 rather than June 30, to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.

It also outlined plans to approve a 10-group format for the European section of FIFA World Cup 2020 qualifying, as well as new formats for the Women’s U-17 and Women’s U-19 European Championships.