The Premier League transfer window could be shut before the season kicks off in future amid growing discontent on the continent.
It has been a longstanding issue that the football season in Europe’s major leagues begins two to three weeks before the transfer window closes, often leaving clubs in a state of flux.
And now the Italian Football Federation president has said he will raise the issue with other national associations at a Uefa meeting to see if there is enough support.
Gabriele Gravina told Italian media: “On our part there is opposition to playing with the market open, because it fuels distortions and generates fibrillations that we cannot tolerate between players and clubs.”
Topics such as this can be discussed at the Uefa Football Board meetings, which include players and coaches, or in meetings of the national associations facilitated by the governing body.
Fifa, world football’s governing body, sets the general timing of transfer windows but national associations agree on the specific dates. This year, the associations from the major footballing countries agreed to close it this Friday.
While everyone operates under the same rules, the current system does raise some integrity issues.
This summer, at Chelsea Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell, two of the Premier League’s leading players, have been left out of the squad and are training away from the first team while the club tries to sell them and their futures are resolved.
Two games into the season, as many as 15 players could leave, while Chelsea have not ruled out bringing in more players.
Brentford, meanwhile, have not deemed it appropriate to play Ivan Toney, their star striker, this season while the prospect of a transfer remains, with Chelsea and clubs in Saudi interested.
Marc Guehi has played two Premier League games for Crystal Palace but could still move to Newcastle United, who have been pursuing him all summer but have yet to meet Palace’s asking price north of £60m.
But it is not a problem exclusive to England. In France, Manuel Ugarte was left out of Paris Saint-Germain’s squad while he agreed a transfer to Manchester United.
It can also be an issue where a key player tries to engineer a transfer away from a club towards the end of the window.
Brentford manager Thomas Frank said after the recent defeat to Liverpool, “I’m always happy when the window is shut. Then we don’t have to talk about ifs, and buts and when and maybe about a lot of players and of course about Ivan. It’s all about Ivan.”
Premier League clubs have, in the past, tried to counter the issue. In 2017, in a vote the majority of clubs agreed to bring the transfer deadline day forward, so that all Premier League clubs had their transfers finalised before the season began.
But this was not followed by other countries and the idea was eventually scrapped – without synchronicity it put Premier League clubs at a disadvantage. Clubs in Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, the German Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1 could bid for Premier League players leaving the clubs unable to replace them.
Crystal Palace, Manchester City, Manchester United, Swansea and Watford had voted against the proposal, while Burnley abstained.
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