Next season's transfer windows will revert to 11pm deadlines, it has been confirmed.
The Football League has announced the dates and times for business to be done in 2026-27, which are almost always in line with the Premier League's.
In theory, transfer business will open on June 15, four days into the World Cup, although this is always the least relevant date of them all.
With the season over, deals are already being lined up and agreed. Most contracts run until June 30, but clubs do not feel the need to wait until then to announce who will be joining them on July 1. For example, we already know midfielder Mark Shelton will sign for York City, winger Leon Ayinde will join Doncaster Rovers, and Jon Russell will leave Huddersfield Town for Mansfield Town.
But the deadline for completing deals is much more important, and this year it will be 11pm on September 1 – a Tuesday and therefore quite probably a matchday for at least some Yorkshire teams. Football League clubs will have been playing league games for three weekends by then - plus a weekend first round of the League Cup – and Premier League clubs two.
In theory the winter window opens on New Year's Day although in practice getting registrations done that day is always difficult, so it may be the midweek games of 5th/6th before we see any debutants take to the field.
The window closes on a Monday night, February 1, at 11pm, which hopefully means at most two teams will be playing that evening.
The League Cup first round starts on the second weekend of August, with the Football League kicking off seven days later. The Premier League is delayed to give players to recover from the longest World Cup in history, and restarts on August 21.