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Although The Football League did not introduce this during last season for internal transfers ,and they won’t again this season, it was adopted by the Premier League and therefore players were not allowed to move on. Even when they did Darren Ambrose (Ipswich to Newcastle) and Herman Hreidarsson (Ipswich to Charlton) for example they were not allowed to play for their new clubs.
Mawhinney has therefore announced that he intends to meet with leagues from around the world to organise a concerted campaign to have domestic transfer windows scrapped.
An analysis of transfer activity for Nationwide League clubs in season 2002/03 has been carried out and produced the following results.
- The value of sales from Football League clubs to Premier League clubs has dropped by more than a third from £52,236,801 in 1999/2000 to £33,227,150 last season.
- The value of the transfer market between Football League clubs has dropped by almost 90% from an average of £29,576,860 (five seasons 1997/98 to 2001/02) to £3,317,625 last season.
- The value of the domestic transfer market, including Premier League clubs, has dropped by almost half from an average of £169.5m (five seasons 1997/98 to 2001/02) to £90,380,775 last season.
Mawhinney said following the release of these results, "We’ve looked at the figures and are shocked and we think they will shock other people.
"If the downward spiral created by the transfer window continues, clubs in The Football League could go out of business. We have 72 clubs who have historically been sustained in part by the ability to sell players as and when the need arises. That ability has been taken away."
He added, "The domestic transfer market must be re-opened and we are going to explore the possibility of hosting a conference of football bodies from around Europe and beyond to investigate a way of challenging FIFA over the imposition of windows on a domestic basis.
"We want to know if there are other leagues who want to join us in making a case to FIFA. If multiple countries join us that obviously makes the case stronger. But we will make representations to FIFA regardless."
Firstly I have to admit to agreeing with Sir Brian Mawhinney that the introduction of the transfer window has not helped but there it ends. I wasn’t shocked by the figures at all and neither do I think that downward spiral can be considered totally because of this change in the transfer system.
Whilst Mawhinney was away losing General Elections he may have missed the fact that there was a player called Bosman who forced a massive change to transfers within Europe and he may also have missed the fact that those clubs he now chairs all lost money because of the incompetence of his league in dealing with television companies.
Premier league clubs have used Football League clubs less and less for signing players over the last few years with more and more foreign players coming in. Could we have ever envisaged a Bolton side without a single Englishman just a short time ago?
He’s on a loser taking on FIFA for a start, he doesn’t even have the backing of this country’s top league but if he thinks getting the transfer window system scrapped is suddenly going to make those figures start climbing again then I think he would be better employed losing General Elections.
You can also imagine that The Football League have wasted even more money in putting this analysis together, an analysis that is of no use at all if other factors are not considered.
The transfer system has changed with or without windows, it changed when Jean Luc Bosman won his case and has changed even more with clubs having a shortage of money.
The transfer window was introduced almost as The Football League were losing their court case against Carlton and Granada, it is that incompetence that has caused much hardship and not FIFA’s oft closed window.