The Premier League has approved plans to close next summer’s transfer window before the start of the new season.
The arrangement will see England’s top flight fall in line with Europe’s other top leagues.
Executives from the European Club Association, which represents clubs from England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, are all committed to stopping clubs from trading players after the new campaign has started.
The 2025/26 Premier League season is due to kick off on Saturday, August 16 with plans in place to close the summer transfer window 25 hours earlier on Friday, August 15.
It is then hoped that the Premier League can convince the rest of Europe to follow suit with clubs from the top five leagues unable to recruit after the new season is underway.
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The idea of a uniformed deadline day collapsed this summer when LaLiga withdrew their support for the idea.
This was after the league came under pressure from Barcelona, who required more time to raise funds due to their financial situation.
It meant that clubs could buy and sell players until August 30 – two weeks after the Premier League got underway.
That arrangement was a huge topic of frustration for managers in the Premier League who weren’t happy at the unsettling nature the market had on their preparations.
Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano and Celtic’s non-executive chairman Peter Lawwell both sit on the ECA’s board of directors – as does former Sunderland director Chris Woerts.
Woerts is a prominent figure in the Dutch Eredivisie and discussed how the plan had grown support.
He said: “The clubs are working hard to get the decision made on this within the entire ECA. Next year the transfer window must close on August 15, before the leagues kick off.
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“Everyone is getting frustrated and annoyed by the fact that players are still being sold for weeks while the competitions have started.
“One major club in Spain caused a problem so it couldn’t happen this year. That was FC Barcelona. Because of all their financial problems they were not able to make moves on the transfer market until a very late stage. So they broke the pact of the ‘Big Five’.”
This summer’s transfer deadline day saw huge deals completed as Arsenal signed Raheem Sterling on loan from Chelsea and Manchester United signed Manuel Ugarte from Paris Saint-Germain.
However next year, any such deadline day drama will be completed before a ball is kicked.
