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Fifa President Sepp Blatter
FIFA

Clubs will stop "playing chicken" under new transfer system -Fifa

New online system will eliminate “grey area” on transfer deadline day.

Clubs will stop “playing chicken” near transfer deadline day and rushing through transfers under new Fifa rules to bring in an online system for player registration.

All transfers will go through the new Transfer Matching System (TMS) from this Friday. Fifa thinks that the move will make transfers more transparent, prevent money laundering and protect children.

“Over the last two and half years we have seen examples of big clubs like Real Madrid who last year came out very early in the transfer market and did their business in the first two weeks of the window”  says TMS chief Mark Goddard. ”They avoided leaving it until the last minute as they didn’t want to risk playing a game of chicken with a computer system which would say time has run out.”

Clubs will be made to declare if there is any third-party ownership of a player- as was the case in Carlos Tevez’s move from Corinthians to West Ham. The TMS will shut once the transfer deadline has passed, and clubs will be sanctioned for violations of registration rules.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said: “This is a historic moment for football. TMS is a relatively simple online system but it will have a tremendous impact on the international transfer of players.

“Thanks to TMS, football’s authorities have more details available on each and every transfer. The most important thing is that it increases the transparency of individual transactions and helps us to tackle issues such as the fight against money laundering and the protection of minors in transfers.”