FA to ask FIFA for help over transfer row

The Football Association today agreed to lobby FIFA in an effort to diffuse a potentially damaging row with the Football League over the introduction of transfer windows.

The League has written to the FA threatening legal action if it agrees to incorporate the new system into its rules at a meeting of the FA council this weekend.

Any such move, the League says, would be binding for its 72 clubs as the competition is licensed by the FA.

The League, already reeling from the collapse of ITV Digital, fears the new regulations will prevent clubs from cashing in on star players when they need to raise money to balance the books quickly.

FIFA wants to introduce the new system this autumn. It would limit transfer activity to two fixed periods, from the end of the season to 31 August and from 1 January to 1 February.

That is too restrictive, says the League, which cites the transfer of Nottingham Forest's Jermaine Jenas to Newcastle United for £5 million last February. Had the windows been in place Forest, struggling financially, would not have been able to sell him and might have gone into liquidation.

Amid fears that the FA might agree to the new system, the League's lawyer Nick Craig wrote to FA company secretary Nic Coward threatening legal action. Craig argues the FA council doesn't have the power to implement the rules without fully consulting the League.