In a bridge transfer, a third club is placed between an old and a new club for the purpose of avoiding^[1] or gaining^[2] access to applicable regulations and laws.

Indicators of bridge transfers are:

• a short time period in which the transfers happen;
• the transfer to the bridge club lacks sports reasons;
• there is an obvious discrepancy between the level of the player and the bridge club.

Sample A:

• Player P is 19 years old and is registered for 3 years as an amateur with the Ghanian club GA.
• club DA is a Dutch category I club and wishes to sign P but without paying the Ghanaian club GA training compensation (270K EUR max);
• the Dutch club DA is befriended with or controls the Bulgarian category IV club BA;
• the default rule is that a category IV club does not have to pay training compensation.^[3]
• the Dutch club DA asks the Bulgarian club BA to sign the player
• Shortly after the Bulgarian club BA has signed the player, the player is transferred to against a zero or low fee to the Dutch club DA, which now has the player for a bargain and
• the Ghanaian club GA is left empty-handed.

Sample B:

• Player P from country A is transfer free.
• Player P wishes to sign with Club A from country A and collect a high sign-on fee
• sign-on fees are taxed at a high rate (for instance 50%) in country A and the player wishes to avoid that;
• in country B the tax rate on sign-on-fees are tax exempt
• Player P (or his agent) know club B in country B who is willing to facilitate a bridge transfer against a small fee (lower than the tax on sign-on-fees in country A)
• Club A in country A is willing to pay the sign-on-fee in the form of a transfer fee to club B, which transfer fee after deduction of Club B’s fee is paid to the player P.
• shortly after the transfer to club B the player the player is transferred to Club A.
• Club A pays the transfer F, out of sight for the tax authorities of country A club B pays player P the transfer fee after deducting a small fee.
• Player P avoids paying taxes over the ‘sign-on-fee/transfer fee’ in country A.
• the whole construction has no other purpose than tax-evasion and the transfer to club B lacks sportive reasons.

Transfers of this kind have been a thorn in FIFA’s side for many years and FIFA has not always been successful in fighting it due to lack of explicit guidelines in the regulations^[4]. This has changed per 1 March 2020. New provisions have bee added to the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RST)with the aim to ensure that football transfers have a legitimate purpose and are not undertaken to circumvent FIFA regulations and applicable laws. ^[5]

The changes:

1. First of all the RSTP now define what a bridge transfer^[6] is:

any two consecutive transfers, national or international, of the same player connected to each other and comprising a registration of that player with the middle club to circumvent the application of the relevant regulations or laws and/or defraud another person or entity

2. It has been made clear that players may only be registered for sports or transparency reasons^[7]:

A player may only be registered with a club for the purpose of playing organised football. As an exception to this rule a player may have to be registered with a club for mere technical reasons to secure transparency in consecutive individual transactions (cf. Annexe 3)

3. Both clubs and players involved in bridge transfer risk sanctions^[8]::

No club or player shall be involved in a bridge transfer.

4. The burden of proof is also reversed in case 2 transfers follow each other within a 16 week period.^[9]:

It shall be presumed, unless established to the contrary, that if two consecutive transfers, national or international, of the same player occur within a period of 16 weeks, the parties (clubs and player) involved in those two transfers have participated in a bridge transfer.

This does not mean that consecutive transfers are prohibited within this period, but parties involved in a consecutive transfer will be required to demonstrate that there is no foul play if they are charged with a bridge transfer.

It is difficult to believe that this will be the end of bridge transfers but it will be more difficult in the future.