Statement: Men’s Professional Transfer Windows

Canada Soccer is providing an update on the men’s professional transfer windows, an item that is part of its regulatory oversight responsibilities.

Background:
Canada Soccer has historically aligned its professional male transfer calendar with the U.S. Soccer Federation to ensure consistency of transfer windows for Canadian-based Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs with the rest of the MLS. This alignment has been maintained since the inception of the Canadian Premier League (CPL) in 2019 without any conflicts.

However, as the CPL continues to grow, and its competitive and business needs evolve, Canada Soccer’s longstanding practice of defaulting to the U.S. Soccer Federation’s transfer windows may no longer be the right solution. Canada Soccer has a responsibility to structure its professional soccer regulations in a manner that serves all domestic professional soccer members in the best possible way. FIFA regulations currently do not permit clubs within the same country to operate on different transfer window calendars.

Transfer windows in 2024:
The process of determining Canada Soccer’s 2024 transfer windows began in late 2023, with much of the communication between stakeholders about this issue taking place in early 2024.

The CPL preferred a secondary transfer window that would start on July 5. The MLS wished to maintain alignment with the U.S. Soccer Federation’s secondary transfer window, which starts on July 18.

To reconcile this discrepancy, Canada Soccer sought a regulatory exception from FIFA that would allow the three Canadian MLS clubs to adhere to U.S. Soccer Federation transfer windows. This would allow the Canada Soccer transfer windows to differ without creating a misalignment for the Canadian MLS clubs. Unfortunately, this exception was not approved, and was further denied on appeal.

Accordingly, Canada Soccer determined a compromise and communicated to MLS and CPL that the secondary transfer window in Canada would start on July 12, 2024 – one week later than preferred by CPL and one week earlier than favoured by MLS.

Moving forward:
Creating regulations for professional soccer stakeholders who have different preferences for the transfer window calendar is complex. It will require compromise from stakeholders and strong leadership from Canada Soccer, who has a responsibility to serve all domestic professional soccer stakeholders in the most appropriate way. Canada Soccer will continue to engage in dialogue with MLS and CPL to find the best possible solutions moving forward.