National transfer
A national transfer is the movement of a player’s registration from one club to another within the same association.
The counterpart to an international transfer, and the simpler of the two: no international transfer certificate, and no passage through TMS.
Simpler is not unrecorded. Associations must operate an electronic domestic transfer system, built on the same principles as the international model, capturing at minimum the player’s full name, gender, nationality, date of birth and FIFA ID, their status as amateur or professional, the names and FIFA IDs of both clubs, and any payments between them. It has to be integrated with the association’s registration system and with the FIFA Connect Interface.
The payments field is the one that matters commercially. A fee paid on a national transfer during a contract engages the solidarity mechanism in the same way an international one does, and the clubs owed a share may well be in other associations.
The bridge transfer rule reaches national transfers too. It catches two consecutive transfers, national or international, connected to each other, where the registration with the middle club exists to circumvent the regulations.
Worked example
A player moves between two clubs in the same association for a fee, mid-contract.
No ITC and no TMS, and the solidarity mechanism applies exactly as it would have done on a move abroad.
Related terms
- International transferAn international transfer is the movement of a player’s registration from one association to another.
- Solidarity mechanismThe solidarity mechanism reserves 5% of any compensation paid when a professional transfers before their contract expires, distributed among every club that trained them between the calendar years of their 12th and 23rd birthdays.
- Bridge transferA bridge transfer routes a player through an intermediate club to disguise the real transaction, and it is prohibited outright for clubs and players alike.