Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP)

1. International transfers of players are only permitted if the player is over the age of 18.

2. The following five exceptions to this rule apply:

• a. The player’s parents move to the country in which the new club is located for reasons not linked to football.
• b. The player is aged between 16 and 18 and:
• i. the transfer takes place within the territory of the European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA); or ii. the transfer takes place between two associations within the same country. The new club must fulfil the following minimum obligations: iii. It shall provide the player with an adequate football education and/or training in line with the highest national standards (cf. Annexe 4, article 4). iv. It shall guarantee the player an academic and/or school and/or vocational education and/or training, in addition to his football education and/ or training, which will allow the player to pursue a career other than football should he cease to play professional football.
• v. It shall make all necessary arrangements to ensure that the player is looked after in the best possible way (optimum living standards with a host family or in club accommodation, appointment of a mentor at the club, etc.). vi. It shall, on registration of such a player, provide the relevant association with proof that it is complying with the aforementioned obligations.

30. VII. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS INVOLVING MINORS

• c. The player lives no further than 50km from a national border and the club with which the player wishes to be registered in the neighbouring association is also within 50km of that border. The maximum distance between the player’s domicile and the club’s headquarters shall be 100km. In such cases, the player must continue to live at home and the two associations concerned must give their explicit consent.
• d. The player flees his country of origin for humanitarian reasons, specifically related to his life or freedom being threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, belonging to a particular social group, or political opinion, without his parents and is therefore at least temporarily permitted to reside in the country of arrival.
• e. The player is a student and moves without his parents to another country temporarily for academic reasons in order to undertake an exchange programme. The duration of the player’s registration for the new club until he turns 18 or until the end of the academic or school programme cannot exceed one year. The player’s new club may only be a purely amateur club without a professional team or without a legal, financial or de facto link to a professional club.

  3. The provisions of this article shall also apply to any player who has never previously been registered with a club, is not a national of the country where the association at which he wishes to be registered for the first time is domiciled, and has not lived continuously for at least the last five years in said country.

  4. Where a minor player is at least ten years old, the Players’ Status Chamber of the Football Tribunal must approve:

• a. their international transfer according to paragraph 2;
• b. their first registration according to paragraph 3; or
• c. their first registration, where the minor player is not a national of the country where the association at which they wish to be registered is domiciled and has lived continuously for at least the last five years in that country.

  5. Approval pursuant to paragraph 4 is required prior to any request for an ITC and/or a first registration by an association.

  6. Where a minor player is under ten years old, it is the responsibility of the association that intends to register the player – as per the request of its affiliated club – to verify and ensure that the circumstances of the player fall, beyond all doubt, under one of the exceptions provided for in paragraph 2, 3, or 4 c). Such verification shall be made prior to any registration.

  7. An association may apply to the Players’ Status Chamber of the Football Tribunal for a limited minor exemption (“LME”).

• a. An LME, if granted, relieves an association, under specific terms and conditions and solely for amateur minor players who are to be registered with purely amateur clubs, from the application obligations set out in paragraph 4.
• b. In such a case, prior to any request for an ITC and/or a first registration, the association concerned is required to verify and ensure that the circumstances of the player fall, beyond all doubt, under one of the exceptions provided for in paragraph 2, 3, or 4 c).

  8. The procedures for applying to the Players’ Status Chamber of the Football Tribunal for the matters described in this article are contained in the Procedural Rules Governing the Football Tribunal.