For the first time since the start of the A-League, clubs could be allowed to transfer players between one another after a proposal was put forward that will permit loan moves next season.
Football Federation Australia is set to meet with the clubs and the Australian players' union, the PFA, next week in the hope of rubber-stamping a change to the regulations that could have major implications on player development and terms of contracts for young local footballers.
A proposal that has been put forward to the FFA board and involves the PFA will allow for Australian players under the age of 23 to move between clubs on loan for up to one season in order to gain more match time.
Under the current regulations, A-League clubs are not allowed to loan, purchase or transfer players directly between one another, with strict measures put in place at the start of the competition in 2005 in order to prevent clubs from jeopardising their financial stability. Players can only move between clubs as free agents.
However, the first steps towards eroding those stringent rules are close to being made with an intra-league loan system in the process of being ratified that would allow players from one club to temporarily move to a rival.
It's understood a document outlining loan moves was devised by the FFA's A-League department in response to long-running calls from clubs and the PFA to address issues surrounding transfers, bottlenecks in player pathways and short-term contracts in the A-League.
PFA chief executive John Didulica was supportive of the move towards a loan system while urging for a rethink of the overall salary cap and transfer regulations in place in the A-League.
"Our starting position is there are a lot of problems with the current framework and current structure – so many one-year deals, so much short-term contracting," Didulica said. "Our position is we really need to look at the entire structure. Loans probably play a role in their somewhere. We need to work towards a loan system and we are working constructively with the FFA on that. That works hand in glove with the way the salary cap works, the absence of the transfer system and the need for more clubs."
Fairfax Media sought comment from the FFA.
The need for a loan system is in response to cases of talented players struggling for senior football, such as that of Sydney FC striker Charles Lokolingoy and Lachlan Scott at Western Sydney Wanderers, who are both prolific in the National Youth League and NPL yet are restricted to only a handful of cameos all season behind the likes of Bobo and Oriol Riera respectively.
The duo are among the many talented youngsters who have struggled to break through to regular senior football in Australia. While a loan system would allow the likes of Lokolingoy and Scott to move to other clubs in need of players, the PFA describes the introduction of loans as a "zero sum" system.
"Every player you shift from a club blocks the place for another player," Didulica said.
In such a small competition with just 10 professional teams and no second division, the PFA believe expansion must accompany the allowance of loans.
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