To Make Football Truly Global, We Have to Make Transfers As Transparent As Possible: Infantino

To Make Football Truly Global, We Have to Make Transfers As Transparent As Possible:  Infantino

 

The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has reiterated that the transfer of players needs to be as transparent as possible. Infantino said this during a workshop for the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP), which was held virtually on the 10th of November, 2021.

 

The commentary on the RSTP is a crucial document that will support member associations, clubs, players, leagues and football legal experts in ensuring that the RSTP is applied consistently across the global football community.

 

The first edition, published in 2007 by FIFA, was a tool to supplement the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP), which was first adopted in 2001 following cooperation and negotiations between FIFA and the European Commission.

 

To mark the introduction of the 2021 version of the document, FIFA held a virtual workshop as well as two-panel discussions and the participation of Gianni Infantino, the FIFA President, and Mario Monti, the EU Commissioner for Competition at the time of the RSTP’s adoption in 2001.

 

During the workshop, Infantino intimated participants with some of the reforms of his administration regarding transfers from 2016 to date with emphasis on the “Transfer Clearing House” and compensation for the training of players.

 

‘ When I was elected president of FIFA in 2016, I immediately committed to the reform of the transfer system: I feel that after 15 to 20 years, you have to look into what you can be doing better.”

 

He went further to say that ‘I believe we should seriously look into making all these rules a step more transparent than what they are now, a step clearer. The ‘Clearing House’ will help in this direction. Already, the payments for the training compensation will make sure that at least the 5%, which out of €7 billion is at least €350 million, should go to those clubs who train players”

 

Infantino was also particular about the transparency of transfers and how FIFA is working to ensure it eradicates the bad image attributed to the process.

 

‘And then, in the second and the third step, all other payments in order to avoid what still happens regularly and brings a bad image into football, which is that every time financial police of almost any country in the world looks at some transfer activities, they find something.

 

We have to stop with that. We have to make it transparent, we have to make it clear, we have to make the payments from one club to the other club [go] through a ‘Clearing House’ in order to improve, as well, the payment system, but also the transparency, the reputation and image of football. We’ll fight for that, we’ll go for that, and I’m sure we will achieve, as I said, a positive result in this respect.”