UEFA president Ceferin backs shortened transfer window

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has backed a proposal to shorten the transfer window to ensure it closes before the start of a new league season.

Premier League clubs are set to vote on the proposal after the situations of a number of high-profile players, including Alexis Sanchez, Diego Costa and Philippe Coutinho, overshadowed their teams’ opening fixtures.

But a change to the transfer window would likely need to be rolled out across Europe to be effective and Ceferin’s backing could be decisive.

“I am aware there are serious discussions around Europe regarding the shortening of the summer transfer window and we are following them closely,” the UEFA president told The Times.

“In my view, it is not good when footballers play for one club when the league starts and another club when the transfer window closes. There is a lot of uncertainty for a long time.

“Therefore I would say that the window might be too long and I would support it being shorter.”

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has also called for January’s mid-season transfer window to be scrapped entirely due to players being unsettled by speculation linking them with new clubs.

“The players who do not play or the players who are tapped up in October, they already start again to think, ‘Where do I go in January?'” Wenger told beIN Sports. “That’s not a way to be on board with a football club.

“We are here to entertain people and you can do that with people who are really on board together, to achieve something together and not every minute that it doesn’t go well to think, ‘Where can I go next?’

“I believe that we have to bring some decency. We all complain today that it has become too much a business, but we can do something about it. We have that responsibility in the game.

“You can’t have a player preparing for a vital football game and still be on the phone at four o’clock, ‘Do I go or not?’ or ‘How much is it?’, ‘Where do I go?’

“The ideal situation would be to have a transfer period that is closed 48 hours before the first game of the championship and to close it completely until the season after.”