Premier League logo on a flag.
Premier League clubs have a split transfer window to negotiate this summer.
(Image: PA)
They announced an agreement with Wolves to sign Brazil forward Matheus Cunha only 14 hours after the market had opened. Manchester City are yet to make such an announcement - but they have agreed on a deal to sign AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders.
An initial deadline to complete that transfer is looming, though, despite still only being early-June. That's because clubs only have ten days to do business during an exceptional registration period before the window closes again, ahead of reopening later this month at a more standard time.
The change comes because of the Club World Cup expanding and becoming a tournament that now takes place across June and July, with FIFA wanting teams participating in the tournament to be able to snap-up new players before it begins on June 14. Ordinarily, that would be roughly the date when the summer window opens, as it was last year.
Therefore, the market opened for all clubs early on June 1, but will swiftly close on June 10 - four days before the competition in the United States starts. The window will remain closed for five days before reopening on June 16.
From that date, the market will continue uninterrupted until transfer deadline day on September 1. The need for a split nature this summer is because FIFA only permits transfer windows to be open for 16 weeks (in total) during a calendar year.
That includes the month-long winter window, which takes up four weeks. As such, the summer window can only stretch across a dozen weeks.
If it remained open from June 1, it would have to close on August 21, eight days shy of September 1. Therefore, the brief break in business allows the major European leagues to be aligned.
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