YOU DON’T NEED a fax machine to transfer a player and there hasn’t been a need for one since 2010, when FIFA launched their Transfer Matching System (FIFA TMS).
I chuckled as I read through tweets detailing late fax messages from Manchester United to Real Madrid, ostensibly the reason for David de Gea’s on-again, off-again transfer.
FIFA TMS is used by every professional club that transfers players internationally. There will be a couple of TMS accounts at every League of Ireland club. Every time a player has moved here from another jurisdiction, be that Damien Duff from Australia or Keith Treacy from the UK, FIFA TMS was used. Likewise, St Pat’s will have used it to transfer Chris Forrester out of the club this week.
The system is designed to eliminate corruption, doubt and cheating that had previously been a risk during the transfer of players. That is where the name ‘Transfer Matching System’ comes from, to transfer a player between two clubs, each clubs must individually enter the same detail for the deal on their individual FIFA TMS accounts. The respective entries must match exactly. If a transfer fee is involved and one club gets the amount incorrect by a single Euro, TMS will not process the transaction; the club which made the error will have to log back in and correct it, which would usually only take a few minutes.
However, if you’re using it on transfer deadline day at 11.58pm, both parties are under pressure to get everything exactly right or risk the deal falling through.
When you’re buying a player you have to log onto the system as a receiving club, initiate a search for the player, and link him to your club. You upload a PDF scan of your contract with the player, a JPEG of his passport and enter data about the value of his contract and any add-ons that might be agreed. This is all confidential; FIFA will use the data generically in reports, and national associations may ask for broad figures, but confidentiality is guaranteed.
Separately, the transferring club relinquishes their rights to the player and fills in the fee they will receive — if any — including confirmation that they hold no other claim on the player. Both clubs have to highlight if an agent is involved in the deal and what percentage or what fee is being allocated to him.
The key thing is that the data entered by both the transferring and receiving clubs has to match. If the money doesn’t match, the deal cannot go through. If the information matches then the speed with which a transfer goes through is based only on the strength of your broadband.
It can happen within seconds once both parties are online together. Otherwise the system waits for the final piece of information to be completed, and either club can cause a delay. It’s easy to see who put the final piece of relevant information on the system as every transaction has a time-stamped audit trail.
Once FIFA TMS verifies that the transfer has been performed, the Football Associations issue the International Transfer Clearance, but this separate activity does not need to happen on transfer deadline day, just before the player physically plays a match.
In my time using TMS for League of Ireland clubs I’ve seen a few snags that can be hit, mostly you’re simply chasing a club to issue a release letter to FIFA TMS. I know of one player transferring from a very small foreign club who missed the transfer deadline because the transferring club didn’t know how to use TMS and delayed the process. No fee was changing hands. They simply had to scan up a letter stating that the player was no longer contracted to them; they just didn’t “get around to it.” The player couldn’t play until the following transfer window, costing him thousands.
Another player I know had to get the National Association of his former club involved. He hadn’t been paid in months but the club were refusing to cancel his contract, or acknowledge his right to break it. The National Association had to overwrite the club’s claims on the player and issue him with a letter confirming his availability to sign in Ireland.
Occasionally the information the two clubs put up might not match, which isn’t an issue unless you’re right up against a deadline for a transfer window. It can be solved by a quick phonecall or email and someone logging back in.
One regular issue Irish clubs hit is that FIFA TMS demands a contract end date be entered and won’t recognise the ‘End of Season’ statement of the FAI’s standard player contract, needed if a player makes the FAI Cup final a week after the final league match. Much of my own time on TMS has been spent explaining to FIFA why I shouldn’t be fined for that discrepancy.
It’s such a commonly used system that it’s a surprise to see two massive clubs with large and experienced admin teams posturing about a transaction that’s pretty straightforward.
It’s hard to see where Real Madrid and/or Manchester United fell down, but given the length of time de Gea has been linked to Madrid, it’s difficult not to point to some brinkmanship or mismatched info entered too late to correct.
