International transfers of refugees and protected persons follow a special procedure. This procedure applies to all female and male refugees or protected persons, regardless of whether they are registered as professionals or amateurs, within the scope of 11-a-side football or otherwise.
In principle, players of any age who move internationally for humanitarian reasons are considered to need protection when they have had to flee their country of nationality because their life or freedom is threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and they cannot be expected to return.
It is therefore essential that the ITC proceedings do not disclose the player’s whereabouts to government authorities in the country of the player’s nationality or to the former club, as this could jeopardise the safety of the player and their family.
Table of contents
Procedure
If a club wishes to engage a refugee or protected person, the club must not enter a transfer in TMS for the player and the new association must not request the ITC from the association of the player’s nationality and former club. Instead, as an exception to the strict application of the Regulations, the new association must directly request the intervention of FIFA Disputes & Regulatory Applications Department outside of TMS.
Requesting the intervention of FIFA Disputes & Regulatory Applications Department
The new association may request the intervention of FIFA Disputes & Regulatory Applications Department by emailing the relevant PDF files to regulatory@fifa.org.
Together with the request for intervention, the new association must provide the relevant documentary evidence confirming that the player involved has indeed been granted the status of a person in need of protection by the competent authorities of the country of arrival.
For more information on this matter, see FIFA circular no. 1635 on FIFA.com.