Taking A Loan of the Rules

As I watch the Manchester City v Tottenham game a thought comes into my head about something I’d previously wondered. Spurs play this game, against a near league rival, without Emmanuel Adebayor as he is on loan from City. So in effect the Citizens have weakened their opponents before the game has started. Which gets me thinking “is this a form of cheating?”

On March 3^rd Tottenham go to Old Trafford and you would assume that Adebayor will feature. So the possible scenario could rise where he could score the winner in this game, great for Spurs of course but also for City. Adebayor has the chance to hurt Utd but not City.

It is very rare two rivals would do such a deal, I remember Mancini saying last season he wouldn’t loan Shay Given to Spurs as they were a rival for Champions League positions. Maybe you underestimated Tottenham this year Roberto!

I see the benefit of loan signings for young players to gain first team experience, Sturridge and Wilshire at Bolton are great examples, or as a short term cover but season long loans for players such as Adebayor are a little baffling. He is clearly done at City and spends the second half of last season at Real Madrid. Clearly he is on stupid money at City, around 170 grand a week, and probably wouldn’t want to make less elsewhere. The football lover in us all would ask why not take less money and just play football? But we all know that’s not how it works.

On the FIFA website there appears to be only 3 rules regarding the loaning of players:

1. A professional may be loaned to another club on the basis of a written

agreement between him and the clubs concerned. Any such loan is subject to the

same rules as apply to the transfer of players, including the provisions on training

compensation and the solidarity mechanism.

2. Subject to article 5 paragraph 3, the minimum loan period shall be the time

between two registration periods.

3. The club that has accepted a player on a loan basis is not entitled to transfer

him to a third club without the written authorisation of the club that released

the player on loan and the player concerned.

These are only really regarding the clubs agree to the loan, a deal falls between 2 transfer window and the loaning club can’t sell the player. All pretty obvious stuff. So how far could a club take this?

Does City’s spending power mean they could buy a player and loan him to a rival safe in the knowledge he can’t play against them.

This not have been a issue in years gone by but Manchester City in theory have the means to do such a thing, PSG and the wealth they now have could come into that group too. It’s something that should be looked at before it becomes are real problem.

If a club want to loan a player out who is on big money maybe they should not be allowed to loan players in the same division, young players could still get required experience in The Championship, and situations like the one with Adebayor would be avoided.

In my opinion for deal like this the loaning club should pay the players wages and the player is available to play against anyone. If he was sold there wouldn’t be a clause saying he couldn’t play against City. Spurs train him, treat any injuries so I don’t see the problem with it. I don’t think there’d be a problem with him not trying against City as Spurs would be paying his wages. There does need to be some kind of regulation or what could stop City and their seemingly limitless resources buying the best players from other Premier League clubs loaning them back and as a result never having to face that player.

I appreciate that this may be a little farfetched but so was City being top of the the league not so long ago. 

In injury time Adebayor’s replacement Jermaine Defoe missed a great chance to win the game for Spurs. Would Adebayor have scored it? We’ll never know. City ended up winning 3 – 2. What price he gets the winner on March 3^rd?