FIFA finally look set to stop cash-rich clubs, like Chelsea, hoarding the best young players to the detriment of everyone else.
Following a meeting in September of its Football Stakeholders Committee which agreed an as yet undetermined limit on loans, media reports say a new rule will come into effect for the 2020-21 season with the final figure on permitted loans to be settled early next year.
A raft of European clubs have used the loan system to stockpile talented young players, signing them up and then loaning them out before selling them on for huge profits.
The Football Stakeholders Committee says this has to be halted for “the purpose of youth development as opposed to commercial exploitation”.
National daily understands the maximum number of players out on loan will be capped by FIFA at between six and eight, hitting those clubs who farm out talent but hang on to their registration.
If FIFA’s proposal goes ahead Chelsea, who currently have no fewer than 39 players out on loan at other clubs, could face having to sell most of them in the next 18 months.
A FIFA task force report, seen by Reuters, says the existing setup “sometimes prevents young players from fully developing their talent,” adding that one unnamed club had loaned out 146 players between 2011 and 2017.