Maternity leave
Maternity leave in the transfer regulations is a minimum of 14 weeks’ paid absence for a female player or coach, of which at least eight weeks must fall after the birth.
The figures are minimums set in the regulations themselves rather than left to national law or to a club’s discretion. Fourteen weeks paid, with at least eight of them after the birth.
The registration rules were changed to make the leave usable. A female player may be registered outside a registration period to temporarily replace another who has exercised rights linked to pregnancy, adoption or family leave, and unless the parties agree otherwise that replacement contract runs until the day before the first registration period after the other player returns. A player may also be registered outside a window on completing family, adoption or maternity leave, or on recovering from pregnancy.
Without those two exceptions the protection would be theoretical: a club would face losing a squad place for months with no way to cover it, and a returning player could find herself unable to register until a window opened.
For an agency this is a set of dates to hold rather than a policy to admire. The replacement contract has an end date defined by someone else’s return, and the returning player has a registration route that depends on her contractual status.
Worked example
A player begins leave in October. The club registers a replacement outside the window.
That replacement’s contract runs until the day before the first registration period after the player returns, unless something else was agreed. Two careers now turn on one return date.
Related terms
- Registration periodA registration period, known everywhere as the transfer window, is one of the two annual periods fixed by each association during which players may be registered with a new club.
- Free agentA free agent is a player with no subsisting contract, who can therefore be signed without any payment to a former club because there is no release to buy.