By Andrew Warshaw
January 31 – English football wants to scrap the mid-season January transfer window so that clubs can compete more fairly.
All the main bodies are backing a call to stick with the same players throughout the entire season, according to the BBC.
The idea has been put forward by England’s League Managers Association (LMA) whose chief executive Richard Bevan said current FIFA rules have become more of a hindrance than a help.
“It doesn’t do what it was looking to when it came in,” Bevan told the BBC in a programme to be aired tonight.
“It doesn’t create stability, it doesn’t create a level playing field, and certainly in the Football League they are very keen the domestic window is removed. Key stakeholders in the game – the Premier League, Football Association, Football League, the FA the LMA and the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) – would like to see it scrapped.”
The January window, which was due to end later today with a flurry of last-minute activity, including a possible £50 million transfer involving Liverpool’s Fernando Torres to Chelsea, has increasingly been used in desperation by richer ambitious clubs, or those trying to avoid relegation, paying a premium to pick up players halfway through the season to the detriment of their rivals.
Bevan says it spells the death knell for managers. “I’m sure you’ll find chairman who will say the transfer window was a final nail in the coffin of some decisions that they had to make in terms of sacking managers or coaches,” Bevan said.
“When you consider there are 663 clubs across the 52 leagues of Europe, 50 per cent of them are losing money.
“That’s not a good business position and the transfer window needs to be removed.
“FIFA are in a position where they’ve got one man (Sepp Blatter) making key decisions, and where you have an organisation that can have such an impact on the communities and business of sport, then that is not good governance at all – and it needs to change.”
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