Brazil’s soccer authorities yesterday made it illegal to invest in the transfer rights of a player with the aim of turning a profit on future trades, bringing the country in line with a global ban that comes into effect in five months.
Investors own a stake in the transfer rights of a majority of Brazilian top-division players, leading to concerns that teams could be pressured to move a player to realize gains for speculators. Transfer rules published today by the Confederation of Brazilian Football (CBF) prohibit so-called third-party ownership, which world soccer’s governing body FIFA is outlawing on May 1.
“As far as I’m concerned it’s the first national association that’s brought in domestically FIFA regulations,” Marcos Motta, a lawyer specializing in soccer trades, said by telephone.
Buying stakes in the transfer rights of players has been a common feature in soccer in Brazil for more than 15 years. Between January 2011 and June last year, Brazilian clubs were involved in 5,003 transfers, Zurich-based FIFA said in June, making the country the most active market in the US$4.1 billion global transfer industry.
Brazil’s 24 pages of rules on transfers say that contracts signed between Jan. 1 and April 30 will be valid for a maximum of one year, with the practice outlawed as of May 1. The CBF has also ordered clubs to declare details of existing contracts, including the names of third-party investors and expiration dates.
Motta, who acted in the transfer that took Neymar to Barcelona in 2013, said the ban is already having an impact in Brazil.
“For sure there has been a big decrease in the market,” he said.
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