Limitation period
A limitation period is the time after which a matter can no longer be pursued, regardless of what happened, and football runs several of different lengths.
The Football Tribunal will not hear a case under the transfer regulations if more than two years have elapsed since the event giving rise to the dispute, and it checks that itself in every case rather than waiting for the point to be taken.
The Disciplinary Code runs on a different set. Two years for infringements committed during a match. Ten years for anti-doping rule violations, for infringements relating to international transfers involving minors, and for match manipulation. Five years for everything else. Those periods are interrupted by any procedural act and start again from each interruption.
Once a decision is final there is a further period for enforcing it: five years, running from the day it came into force.
The ten-year band deserves attention from anyone advising on a young player’s move. A file involving the international transfer of a minor stays open for a decade, which is longer than most agency relationships and considerably longer than most people’s recollection of what was agreed.
Worked example
An agency finds an unpaid invoice from twenty-six months ago and a question about a transfer of a 16-year-old from six years ago.
The invoice is out of time. The transfer is not, and will not be for another four years.
Related terms
- Football TribunalThe Football Tribunal is the body that decides football disputes and regulatory applications, through three chambers: the Dispute Resolution Chamber, the Players’ Status Chamber and the Agents Chamber.
- Court of Arbitration for SportCAS is the independent arbitration body in Lausanne that hears appeals against final FIFA decisions, including decisions involving football agents.