During a Transfer Window

Clubs can ‘staff up’, so they have 23 Permitted Players within their squad.

Clubs are able to ‘staff up’ (subject to financial requirements) to ensure the integrity of the competitions and so that Clubs are able to fulfil their fixtures.

Clubs are only permitted to ‘staff up’ by signing players on loan or players not registered with another Club
- Clubs cannot pay fees to acquire loan players and cannot pay additional wages on top of the salary the player receives at their parent Club
Clubs ‘staffing up’ may only register players until the end of the current Season, whilst loan transfers can only be for half a season
Budget restrictions apply dependent upon the divisional status of the Club under embargo

Outside of a Transfer Window

Outside of a transfer window, Clubs can only register Out of Registration players (free agents) and Clubs can only register Out of Registration players if they have less than 16 Permitted Players (2x Goalkeepers, 14x Outfield Players)
In line with Regulation 57, Clubs can register an Emergency Goalkeeper Loan if they don’t have any Professional Goalkeepers available due to injuries, suspensions or international call-ups.

Professional Goalkeeper = a goalkeeper (excluding any Goalkeeper registered as a Non-Contract Player) who has been named in the starting eleven on five or more occasions by:

any Club (or Premier League club) in any matches in the relevant league or first team cup competitions (other than the EFL Trophy); and/or
any other club in a professional league in that club’s home association (by way of example, any division of the Scottish Professional Football League, or Serie A, B or C).

Permitted Player = is any Player who has, at any point during his career, started in 3 League Matches in the same or higher division as the Club that the Player is currently registered with, or is registered with the Club during the period of time that the Club is subject to a registration embargo.

Embargoes and Fee Restrictions

Embargoes FAQs

Fee Restriction FAQs