Premier League transfer window: Clubs vote to move window back in line with rest of Europe
The window has shut the day before the start of the season over the last two years
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Your support makes all the difference.Premier League clubs have voted for the transfer window to be moved back to 1 September to realign with Europe.
Over the past two seasons, the window in England was shut the day before the opening day of the top flight season, while other leading European leagues mostly extended to the end of August.
But after realising the move disadvantaged Premier League clubs, a decision has been made to adjust back to the previous standard, with the window set to shut at 5pm, rather than 11pm, on 1 September this year.
A Premier League statement said: "At a Shareholders’ Meeting today, Premier League clubs voted to adopt a change to the Summer Transfer Window closing date for season 2020/21.
"This will move the closing date back to the traditional point at the end of August/early September. The 2020 closing date will therefore be 17:00 BST on 1 September (31 August 2020 being a UK Bank Holiday).
"Clubs agreed after discussing the topic at length at previous Shareholders' Meetings."
The 20 clubs met on Thursday to discuss the matter after initially deciding to prematurely close the window so as to avoid disruption after the season had begun.
The Premier League had anticipated other leagues following their move, but that has not been the case, with Premier League players instead still having the option to move abroad without the possibility of a replacement arriving.
The decision will please Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, who claimed the move has not worked.
“I don’t care when it closes, but it must close at the same time,” Klopp said back in September.
“They spoke about finishing it before the season starts. Good idea, but only England did it. That makes no sense. It was a good idea but it didn’t work out.”
While Danny Higginbotham welcomed the move by claiming that Premier League clubs have been put in a difficult position since the change.
"The only way it works for the Premier League is if you have it the same day as the rest of Europe," Higginbotham told Sky Sports. "We saw it this season. You actually put the Premier League teams in a difficult position as they can't do business but the rest of Europe could.
"The whole idea of the transfer window is to benefit the clubs in the Premier League and in the Football League. The more you look at it, you're actually destabilising the situations within the Premier League by saying the top teams in Europe can still go out and buy players up until August 31.
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