Unclear situation in Italy
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In Germany, this winter’s transfer window ends on February 3. Normally, January 31 or February 1 is often the deadline, but since those dates fall on a Friday and Saturday this year, the 2025 deadline has been set for a Monday. But this is by no means the case in all countries. (Site notre blog d’information) provides an overview of the opening times for the 2025 winter transfer window.
There is uniformity, at least to some extent, regarding the deadline for professional clubs in Germany, England, Spain, Italy (with reservations; see last paragraph) and France. They are all allowed to register players until February 3 inclusive, but not all at the same time. As in summer, the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga end at 8 p.m. – before the start of the season, the DFL had pushed back the previously set deadline to 6 p.m. For Serie A teams, the transfer window is again open two hours longer, in Ligue 1 work on new additions continues until 11 p.m. and in Spain and England it remains until midnight.
However, this deadline only applies to new arrivals, as clubs like FC Bayern, Hamburger SV or Manchester City and FC Barcelona are still allowed to offer players after this. In some relevant leagues, both in Europe and around the world, the transfer time is longer. Clubs in the Netherlands and Portugal are allowed to recruit players until February 4 and those in Austria until February 6. The teams from Türkiye and Switzerland have even better: they have until February 11 and 17 respectively.
TOR instead of transfer list
Explained: This is how a change works in the Bundesliga
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But in these countries the transfer window also opens later, in Türkiye only on January 11 and in Switzerland on January 15. Leagues in which the season is played according to calendar years start the transfer period even later. The teams of Sweden (January 29 to March 25), Norway (January 30 to March 27) or Finland (February 5 to April 1) will soon experience the equivalent of the summer transfer phase in the major European championships.
Unlike in the summer, short-term deals worth millions after the deadline for European transfers from Saudi Arabia are not possible. Clubs in the extremely financially powerful Saudi Pro League only have until January 30 to recruit players.
Transfer deadline January 30: Saudi Arabia
Transfer deadline January 31: including Greece, Albania, Qatar
Transfer deadline February 3: Germany (8 p.m. 1st and 2nd league, 11:59 p.m. 3rd league), Italy (8 p.m.), France (11 p.m.), England, Spain (11:59 p.m. each) as well as Belgium, Scotland, Denmark
Transfer deadline February 4: Netherlands, Portugal
Transfer deadline February 6: Austria
Transfer deadline February 11: Türkiye
Transfer deadline February 12: Australia
Transfer deadline February 14: Hungary, Serbia
Transfer deadline February 16: Argentina
Transfer deadline February 17: Croatia, Switzerland
Transfer deadline March 7-8: Brazil, South Korea
Transfer deadline end of March/beginning of April: Finland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, United States, among others
The lack of uniform global regulations on transfer phases means that some associations or FIFA itself repeatedly provide incorrect information. Spain’s La Liga, for example, last year listed January 31 as the transfer deadline until January 30, although the change has been amended. to February 1 had already been announced by the World (Site notre blog d’information) Federation in May 2023. Questioned by (Site notre blog d’information), the Spanish association confirmed it again and changed the date.
This year there seems to be a more complicated case in Italy. While the FIFA homepage lists February 4 as the deadline for transfers from Italian clubs, the Italian association insists on February 3. Although FIFA represents the official information, a transfer deadline on a different date than other major leagues is considered unlikely.
