Global Fútbol

Fans of LaLiga clubs have been following their teams’ transfer dealings with great interest this summer, but do they know how the market works behind the scenes? When a signing of a player is agreed, what do the directors of the two clubs involved do to officially complete the operation and to register the player with LaLiga?

The first thing to know about this process is that it is a digital one. Since the summer of 2016, Spanish professional clubs have used software called LaLiga Manager to complete all transactions for new arrivals or departing players. To date, more than 2,000 transfers have been managed through this software that makes the transfer of players simpler, more practical and more secure.

What is LaLiga Manager

LaLiga Manager is an online tool that provides the club directors carrying out transfers with all the documents that they must fill out or upload to the system, ensuring that every transaction is completed correctly and with accurate and verifiable information.

The tool also contains all the FIFA, UEFA and LaLiga regulations that must be met, no matter if the player arriving is coming as a free agent, with the payment of a fee or through the triggering of a release clause. In one of the most recent updates, the platform added links to RFEF’s Fénix system, which is a necessary part of the player license process. As such, it is possible to manage every stage of the player transfer process from LaLiga Manager.

A very intuitive tool

The personalised platform is a user-friendly one, with directors able to log in from any place. Then, they are instructed to introduce the relevant information in the right spaces, with drop-down menus making the process even simpler. It’s as if they were using an online banking app on their phone or booking a plane or train ticket on a website.

Once an agreement is reached between a buying and selling club and once the personal terms have been agreed with a player, the director at the club who will sign the player can open LaLiga Manager and send all the details to LaLiga. If the player is switching between two professional Spanish teams then the selling club must first remove the player from their lists on the app.

All of the information about the transaction must be entered, including the amount paid to the selling club, the terms of the player’s new contract, the details of any agent involved in the deal and all of the relevant taxes. These details must be provided, no matter whether the acquiring club negotiated with another LaLiga team or with a foreign side. This must also be done when a youth team player moves to a senior side. A photo of the player is also uploaded to the system, as this will be used for their official LaLiga license. The allocation of shirt numbers is made official on this platform too.

How LaLiga's Competitions team reviews the documentation and verifies the operation

Once a club has completed this process and asked for the player in question to be registered, a professional in LaLiga’s competitions team will use LaLiga Manager to revise the documentation and to check that all the details are correct and in line with the latest rules.

LaLiga also inspects each transfer to ensure that every deal meets the competition’s Economic Control and Squad Cost Limit rules, which guarantee that Spanish clubs don’t surpass their agreed spending limits. This framework helps LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank clubs to operate within their possibilities, keeping spending on sporting personnel within their limits. It should be noted that LaLiga doesn’t impose a specific salary limit on any player, so there is no cap on what any one player can earn. The agreed set-up allows clubs to allocate their resources however they like, so long as they don’t breach the established limits. 

When a transfer involves two professional Spanish clubs, the selling club also uses LaLiga Manager to verify all of the details introduced by the other party and the competitions department at LaLiga will again study how the deal affects Economic Control limits. Adding to the directors’ peace of mind is the fact that all of the sensitive information entered on this official platform is protected by state-of-the-art security measures.

The LaLiga Manager system ensures that all transfers, including those carried out in the final hour of a transfer window, can be completed without any problems. That means the directors can ‘simply’ get to work on the business of negotiating those transfers.