Changes To Loan Rules Will Effect Manchester City

FIFA  have planned changes to  the International Player Loan System which will serve to frustrate Manchester City.

There are times when Manchester City must feel as though the whole world is conspiring against them and yesterday the extent of some of the proposals to reshape the International Loan Player market to emerged and must have made heads start to shake at the CFA.

Whilst few could argue against the idea of limiting the amount paid to agents through the introduction of a fee capping system, other measures appear to have the potential to cause a disruption more to Manchester City and the City Football Group than to any other side. If someone was paranoid they could be forgiven for thinking the changes were a deliberate ploy to challenge the ownership structure which exists within the CFG.

It is only when changes are made to try and limit the growth of the CFG and Manchester City in particular, that you realise quite how scared some of the authorities must be at this point. Our eleven years of challenging the elite clubs still seems to cause daily consternation.

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Fifa are proposing a system of limiting the amount of international loans which a club can participate in. At the moment much of the reporting around these changes seems swayed by the blurb used by FIFA to spin their approach because by their own admission FIFA want to stop clubs “stockpiling talent”. Seems like a laudable ambition doesn’t it?

The number of non club trained players above the age of 21 who can be sent on loan will be limited to 8 per club initially, dropping to just 6 per club from 2022/23. However, the rules will also limit the loans which can take place between clubs to just 3. So City have in the past developed strong relationships with their sister clubs within the CFG and used these clubs to develop talent. This seems to be being deliberately targeted in the new arrangements.

City are the only club with such an ownership structure, where multiple clubs operate within an umbrella organisation.

What will this mean for Manchester city? It may simply mean that City seek to extend the range and number of clubs within the CFA as a means of securing more loan opportunities for players. Interestingly news of CFG interest in another European Club, namely Vincent Kompany’s RS Anderlecht and also the long rumoured purchase of an Indian Super League club have both resurfaced in the last couple of days.

Whatever strategy City employ in response to these changes it feels a little as though at least a part of the changes is targeted specifically at our ownership model,

Changes to the International loan system will be ratified at the next FIFA congress on 34 October 20109.