Table of contents
Types of validation messages
There are two types of validation messages:
- “Validation exceptions” represent important issues that prevent the transfer from proceeding.
- “Warnings” are informative messages relating to secondary issues that do not prevent the transfer from proceeding.
International transfers
Validation exceptions
“Validation exceptions” are critical errors that prevent a transfer from proceeding. There are different types of validation exceptions that can relate to the player, the club, or the ITC process:
Player
- Player is awaiting confirmation by the former association.
- Player is less than 18 years old and the corresponding minor application has not yet been accepted.
Club
- New club is currently serving a registration ban.
ITC process
- Request date is outside the new association’s defined registration periods.
- Out-of-contract transfer prior to next registration period.
- Amateur transfer prior to next registration period.
- The maximum cap on loans has been exceeded by the former club, the new club or both clubs.
The details of the validation exception as well as the organisation responsible for resolving the specific problem can be viewed by clicking on the transfer status.
Note: in international transfers, all validation exceptions need to be resolved by the FIFA Disputes & Regulatory Applications Department, except for the player confirmation, which is the responsibility of the former association.
For monitoring and record-keeping purposes, transfers in validation exception status will not be cancelled.
Note: as an exception to this rule, the Regulatory Governance & Compliance Department may, upon request from the relevant parties, cancel a “Loan extension” or “Loan to permanent” transfer instruction in validation exception status if the club(s) need to reprocess the original loan (see “Cancelling transfers”).
Member Associations may request FIFA’s intervention in a transfer that is in validation exception status if they believe an override should be granted. For more information, see “Requesting intervention on a transfer”.
Warnings
“Warnings” are notification messages that inform users of a particular issue that is indirectly related to the transfer, but do not prevent the transfer from proceeding.
The most common warnings are:
- The Member Association is suspended;
- The club is suspended (e.g. suspension from competitions).
The warning is displayed when the suspended organisation is selected in the transfer instruction. These messages can also be viewed in the “Stakeholders” tab under “Associations” or “Clubs” (see “Searching and viewing association details” and “Searching and viewing club details” sections).
A suspended Member Association and its affiliated clubs remain responsible for completing the necessary administrative steps in TMS when players join or leave one of its affiliated clubs during the suspension period.
As a general rule, all international transfers of professional players to and from suspended Member Associations must be processed in TMS and the corresponding ITC procedure must be completed in TMS in accordance with Annexe 3 to the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players.
The diagram below provides an overview of validation issues in TMS:
Domestic transfers
Validation exceptions
The most common validation exceptions in domestic transfers are:
- Player is currently underage or was underage at the cut-off date.
- New club is currently serving a registration ban.
- Out-of-contract transfer prior to next registration period.
- Transfer approval outside registration period.
Such exceptions will need to be resolved by the Member Association.
Note: for the “New club is currently serving a registration ban” validation exception status, the registration ban has been applied by FIFA and applies to both domestic and international transfers. However, the Member Association, as the national governing body, can decide to authorise a domestic transfer within its jurisdiction.
Warnings
The most common warnings in domestic transfers are:
- The Member Association is suspended.
- The club is suspended (e.g. suspension from competitions).
Like in international transfers, these warnings are displayed when the suspended organisation is selected within the transfer instruction, and can also be viewed on the relevant organisation’s page in the Stakeholders tab.