The Football League loans rule.....
There are two types of loan, which I shall refer to as "short-term" and "long-term".
A short-term loan is for a period between 28 and 93 days, including the start date and the finishing date. (All loans are for a specific number of days, and technically there is no such thing as "a month's loan".) The player cannot be recalled by his original club during the first 28 days (although it's possible that such a recall is allowed for goalkeepers in an extreme case), but can be afterwards regardless of the original period of the loan. A club can have up to eight players on short-term loan during the season, but no more than four at any one time.
Short-term loans which subsequently become permanent transfers do not count to the limit of eight such loans during a season.
A club is allowed to sign the same player on short-term loan more than once during a season. However, the total number of days on loan cannot exceed 93. Furthermore, a club can extend the length of a short-term loan as long as the total length is not more than 93 days.
A long-term loan can only apply to a player aged under 23 on the 30th June before the start of the season (so for 2003/04, a player on long-term loan has to have been born on or after 1st July, 1980). The loan must commence betwen 1st July and 31st December, and must run to the end of the season. A player on a long-term loan cannot be recalled by his original club unless he is permanently transferred to another club. A club can have up to four players on long-term loan during the season.
No club can send out more than six players on long-term loans during a season.
A club can take a maximum of four loan players (short-term and long-term combined) from any one club during a season.
A club is able to name a maximum of five loan players (short-term and long-term combined) in the 16 players listed on the team sheet for a game.Under extreme circumstances, a club is allowed to take a goalkeeper on loan even if it infringes some of the regulations listed here.
The club receving the loaned player must play at least half of his wages during the period.
Any short-term loan to or from another country must last for 93 days. Note that Welsh clubs playing in the Football League or other parts of the English pyramid do not count as being in another country, but other Welsh clubs, and those in Scotland or Northern Ireland, do count as being in another country.
(NB This very important rule applied in 2001/02 but I believe that it no longer applies unless the number 465 has increased.) A club may use up to 465 loan days each season. Short-term loans which subsequently become permanent transfers do not count to the limit of the number of loan days during a season.
(A rule changed for 2003/04) A Premiership club can take players on loan from other Premiership clubs, but only a maximum of two at a time, a maximum of four per season and only during the transfer window (previously Premiership clubs were not allowed to take players on loan from another Premiership club).
Practice
The most common type of loan is one that lasts for 30 days, expiring on a Saturday. This allows a club to sign a player on the Friday so that he can take part in training on that day, and then to play him in five Saturday games plus any midweek games during the period.
The next most common type is a loan that lasts for 93 days, again expiring on a Saturday. Any such period will also begin on a Friday, so that the player is available for 14 Saturdays.
The two common types above explain why so many loans expire at midnight on a Saturday.
Something that appeared in 2002/03 was the loan that expired on midnight on 1st January. This was obviously so that the original club had the player available to sell during the January transfer window, but also allowed that player to play in the game on 1st January given that probably not too many transfer negotiations are concluded on dates with full League programmes.
The long-term loan was only introduced a few years ago, and is intended principally for Premiership clubs to develop their young players in serious League action. This is why there is an age limit on such loans. The rule about no recall is designed to give the receiving club some stability in their own team. This type of transfer can be risky, for obvious reasons, but so far it seems that these loans have usually been successful. Insignificant clubs with no decent players, such as
, have discovered that their entire season can be turned around by the presence of one major talent.
