European Leagues endorse UEFA plans; UEFA also update financial fair play rules to help clubs cope with impact of coronavirus
Thursday 18 June 2020 20:13, UK
UEFA has advised that the 2020 summer transfer window should close no later than October 5.
The governing body has set October 6 as the deadline for player registrations for European competition next season, so is therefore recommending the window close the previous day.
Their plans have now received the backing of European Leagues' Members - who represent more than 900 clubs in 32 professional football leagues - including the Premier League, English Football League, Bundesliga, La Liga and the Scottish Professional Football League.
"The Leagues underline the recommendation given by UEFA to all member associations to adopt a harmonised end date to the upcoming summer transfer window, with this date set as 5 October 2020," read a statement.
FIFA set the parameters for the summer transfer window last week, allowing them to be opened in countries before the restarted domestic season is finished - but the FA have been discussing a window from August to October.
Sky Sports News exclusively broke that news earlier this month, and that there was some consensus around closing the window on Friday October 2.
But a UEFA statement on Thursday read: "The deadline for player registration for the group stage of the 2020-21 UEFA club competitions has been set to October 6, 2020.
"As a result, 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."
UEFA's executive committee has also approved temporary changes to its Financial Fair Play and club licensing regulations in light of the economic challenges presented by the pandemic.
The break-even assessment of club finances for 2020 will be postponed, and looked at alongside the financial year 2021.
The intention of the changes is to provide clubs with greater flexibility in order to meet transfer and salary obligations; quantify and account for unexpected losses of revenue; and adjust the break-even calculations for any shortfall in earnings reported this year or next.
UEFA hopes to neutralise the impact of the pandemic by averaging the combined deficits of 2020 and 2021 and by "further allowing specific Covid-19 adjustments".
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said: "The decision to postpone EURO 2020 had a significant cost to national team football and UEFA's member associations, but it has allowed domestic competitions across Europe to be played to a conclusion - something that, in turn, has been hugely beneficial to both club and international football.
"The changes made to the European football calendar, which were agreed by UEFA, the ECA and European Leagues, will also make it possible to keep international matches in a period that is an important and long-standing element of the international match calendar.
"Preserving the September international window prevents national team football from suffering further damage - a price that would be paid at every level of the game but that would be felt particularly harshly at grassroots level.
"As guardians of the game across the whole of Europe, we cannot allow that to happen."
