It is official: Augusto Fernández is a new Cádiz player. The return of Nolito to Celta was also confirmed a few days ago. They will wonder how it is possible that this happened in the middle of June, with the market closed and why only two teams have done it. The reason is simple: the General Regulations of the RFEF, in its article 124.3, it includes the possibility of making late signings, as long as they are justified by a long-term injury. However, this measure, which a priori may seem fair, is the target of countless criticisms for the important effect it can have on competition and for the permissiveness of applying it in conditions far from its original spirit.
In other words, in the absence of less than a month to conclude the championship, the critical voices of the soccer world do not consider that neither Cádiz nor Celta need a replacement. To make matters worse for the mentioned detractors, neither team has incorporated a footballer who is a natural replacement for the injured. In the case of the Cádiz club, he lost due to injury to the left back Luismi Quezada and he has brought a midfielder of the stature of Augusto Fernández. Even more striking is what happened with Celta, which has incorporated Nolito to compensate for the loss of Your goalkeeper Sergio Álvarez!
At this stage of competition, both benefit from the application of the rule. Cádiz incorporates a medium that played, likewise, at Atlético de Madrid; and Celta, a footballer that was close to signing last summer and who has had prominence with Lopetegui in an elite team like Sevilla. It's more, Nolito himself has already justified in his redebut in Vigo the reasons why he will be a transcendental footballer for Óscar García and that will surely help in the battle for permanence. In his first match, he scored a goal and gave Santi Mina a great assist, in the group exhibition against Deportivo Alavés.
Braithwaite and Barcelona
On February 20, also after the deadline, Barcelona made the arrival of Martin Braithwaite official. In the winter transfer window, he did not want to sign any footballer, trusting in Dembélé's evolution. However, his long-term loss was confirmed and the blaugrana directive caught the national market and found the danish. All this at the cost of a Leganes who had already lost En-Nesyri and who was left without his two maximum stars without any capacity to reply. The regulations do allow the club with an injured to incorporate a replacement, but it is not easy to the person involved in said transfer to get a substitute.
This move did not sit well with Butarque. Indian Txema, sports director of 'Lega', regretted it at AS: “The norm has hurt us a lot. Now it is very nice to say that it will change. The damage to Leganés is brutal. The feeling I have is of emptiness, of helplessness. From being the small team. As if we didn't matter. Here are families who eat this. It seems that only the great ones have them. Every weekend 12,000 people who suffer with us come here. It hurts me to throw away the work of years. That other clubs come, they take a player out of the market and on top of that they don't let us sign. My way of living is to avoid harm to the person next to me. I still live in the worlds of Yupi, but there are lines that I would never want to cross ”.
That said, Barcelona took power away from a team from the bottom, which tried to close Bacca without the permission of the Royal Spanish Football Federation. The Braithwaite firm, however, had a but. Due to the regulations of the Champions League, he could not play a European competition. Now, UEFA has opened the ban to make three new additions to the lists of the maximum continental tournament, but it will not allow the Danish one either, since it could not be registered in the previous phase and the rule for late transfers is exclusive to the national borders.
FIFA and the RFEF, for the work of repealing the rule
After all the controversy generated by the 'Braithwaite Case', Luis Rubiales publicly announced his intention to present an amendment to the regulations to no longer allow clubs to sign to replace an injured person. It is not the idea of the president of the Royal Federation, but in his day It was FIFA itself that urged Spain to abolish said regulations, since the rest of the European soccer powers do not include it in their respective regulations.
“In 2016 the RFEF asked the CSD (Superior Council of Sports) to delete this norm, and if it is still in force it is because LaLiga opposed. We are going to present a modification of this regulation so that this exception disappears, “Rubiales explained, leaving the responsibility in the hands of the body chaired by Javier Tebas.
The controversial article 124.3 of the General Regulations
“The issuance of a license outside the statutory periods may also be authorized exceptionally when a footballer of the squad causes sick leave or injury that involves a period of inactivity for a period of more than five months, provided that the registration of the substitute footballer does not require the issuance of an International Transfer Certificate.
The concurrence of such circumstance of illness or injury, as well as the purpose of the club to request the federal withdrawal based on it, must be reliably notified to the affected footballer, at least ten days before the date request of the aforementioned federation, so that you can make, if you wish, the allegations you consider appropriate.
In order to authorize the registration of a footballer to replace an injured player, it must be documented that the injury occurred after the corresponding registration period has closed.
The request for exceptional authorization must be made within the month following the date the injury occurred.
The competence to grant authorization will correspond to the RFEF or, where appropriate, to the National Professional Football League, at the request of the interested club, after a file in which the fact is accredited through certification issued by an integrated medical court, at least, by two doctors from the Mutualidad de Previsión Social de Futbolistas Españoles.
Said authorization, if it is necessary to grant it, will have a maximum validity of fifteen days, after which, without formalizing the license, it will expire.
The substitute may not rejoin his club, nor register in any other, even if he is registered, before the aforementioned five-month period has elapsed.
After the five months have elapsed from the date of the federation's withdrawal, the footballer may rejoin his club as long as he provides a certificate from the aforementioned Mutualidad, there are free licenses in the team and he signs, with the authorization of the RFEF, a new license. “
Consult the rule in the General Regulations of the RFEF.