International Transfer Certificates
1. An amateur or non-amateur player who has become eligible to play for a club affiliated to a national association may not be registered with a club affiliated to another national association unless the latter has received an international transfer certificate issued by the national association which the player wishes to leave.
2. A national association may not refuse to issue an international transfer certificate unless:
(a) the player wishing to leave it has not fulfilled his obligations under the terms of his contract with his former club
(b) there is a dispute other than that of a financial nature (cf Art.14 to 17) regarding the transfer between the club he wishes to leave and the club affiliated to another national association which he wishes to join
3. The player’s Status Committee (cf Art.32 of the FIFA Statuses) or, in the case of an appeal, the FIFA Executive Committee, may order a national association to arrange for an international transfer certificate to be issued or itself issue a document replacing such a certificate. In the case of the latter, the validity of the document may be expressly limited to a certain period.
4. If after a period of 60 days from the date of request by the new association, the association which a player wishes to leave has not issued a certificate of transfer or given a valid reason (cf ft above) why it refuses to do so, the new association may issue a provisional certificate to the player, enabling him to play in that country.
The provisional certificate shall become permanent one year after the date on which the new association addressed its request to the former association. In the event of a reply being received in the meantime from the former association, indicating a valid reason why it has not issued a transfer certificate (cf ft above) the provisional certificate shall be withdrawn immediately.
A player shall not, under any circumstances, be authorised to play in official matches for his new club during the 60-day period mentioned above.
5. Only the national association of the club with which the player wishes to play shall be entitled to request the necessary international transfer certificate.
6. The international transfer certificate shall be issued in triplicate and duly signed by the national association which the player intends to leave. Special forms provided by FIFA for this purpose or forms with similar wording shall be used.
7. The original shall be sent to the national association requesting the transfer, the first copy to the FIFA general secretary and the second shall remain in the possession of the national association which the player is leaving.
8. A national association may grant a player temporary eligibility to play on the basis of an international transfer certificate sent by telefax. The player’s eligibility to play shall not be considered definite until the official transfer certificate has actually been received, duly signed b y the former national association. The original of the international transfer certificate must b e received within 30 days of the telefax otherwise the temporary eligibility to play shall automatically be cancelled. A national association resorting to this temporary eligibility clause as a deliberate ploy to enable one of its registered players to play temporarily in another country shall be referred to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.
9. The international transfer certificate shall contain the declaration that the holder of the certificate is free to play within a specific association as from a certain date.
10. The international transfer certificate may not be made subject to certain conditions. In particular, the validity of an international transfer certificate may not be restricted to a certain period and any clauses to this effect appended to the certificate shall be considered null and void.
The foregoing provisions shall be subject to the terms of applicant in Art. 7/113and /114 above (cf Art. 31 with regard to the procedure to be followed whenever players are lent to another club).
11. National associations are strictly forbidden from charging expenses or demanding payment of a fee for issuing an international transfer certificate. If, upon the conclusion of a transfer, a special agreement prolongs the period of compulsory availability of a player for representative matches on behalf of his national association, as provided for under Art. 35, this agreement shall be attached to the international transfer certificate.
12. A national association shall not issue an international transfer certificate for a player who is under suspension on disciplinary grounds when the transfer request is made.
13. In such a case, an international transfer certificate shall not be issued before the day on which the suspension has terminated.
14. Any dispute as to what does or does not constitute disciplinary grounds under /111 above shall be referred to the FIFA Players’ Status Committee.