Talk:Graham Dorrans

Latest comment: 8 years ago by Struway2 in topic Transfer window

Transfer window edit

The transfer window opens the day after a league finishes its playing season, and a club in that league can sign players as soon as it opens. Please see Football League website: Rules: Section 1 - General Definitions:

Season means the period of the year commencing on the date of the first League Match and, for each Club, ending immediately after the completion of the Club’s final fixture of the League Competition or, if the Club is participating in the Play-Offs, the final Play-Off match for that Club.

and Section 6 - Players Rule 41.6.2

Transfer Window shall mean either:
(a) the period commencing at midnight on the last day of the immediately preceding Season (and for the purposes of this Regulation 41.6.2(a) only, those Clubs participating in Play-off matches shall be regarded as having completed their Season notwithstanding their participation in such Play-off matches, but this exception is subject always to Regulation 41.5) and ending at midnight on the 31 August next following; or
(b) the period commencing at midnight on the 31 December and ending at midnight on the 31 January next following...

I've used links to the FL rules because they're on an ordinary webpage rather than the PL's 100s of pages of handbook, but for completeness, the Premier League handbook 2014/15 Section A.1.145 page 86 of a very large PDF file defines season as

Season means the period commencing on the date of the first League Match on the fixture list of the League’s first team competition and ending on the date of the last.

and Rule V.1 page 207 defines the summer transfer window as

The first Transfer Window in any year shall commence at midnight on the last day of the Season and shall end on 31st August next if a Working Day or, if not, on the first Working Day thereafter, at a time to be determined by the Board.

There is no requirement to wait until 1 July. If there was, it would appear in the rules. Norwich's season ended after the play-off final, so the transfer window is open, and if the transfer window is open, they can sign Mr Dorrans. Struway2 (talk) 21:13, 29 May 2015 (UTC)Reply

@Struway2: The transfer windwow does not open officially until 1 July so the transfer cannot go through until then

Please READ the links. These are the rules of the Football League and Premier League, and they make it clear that the transfer window opens the day after the league playing season ends: the day after the last fixture of the playing season. If the rules say the transfer window opens the day after the last fixture of the league's playing season, then that's as official as it gets.
I think you may be getting confused with the situation when a player sees out their contract, which ends on 30 June, so becomes a free agent on 1 July. That's not relevant to a mutually agreed transfer between clubs. Struway2 (talk) 08:12, 30 May 2015 (UTC)Reply