Brixen's Nicholas Mlakar is one of the great talents in South Tyrolean amateur football. © Andrea Giacomelli

Reform postponed: What does this mean for South Tyrol’s clubs?

Amateur football is currently in chaos - even though the ball is at rest. The reason for this is a postponed reform that is causing headaches for many clubs.

July 02, 2024

From: det

The start of training for amateur league teams is only two or three weeks away. So there is hardly a club that has not yet assembled its team for the coming season. But now the plans and agreements of many clubs are being thrown out the window in one fell swoop. A long-planned reform was postponed a few days ago by the Italian Football Association and the Ministry of Sport - and is now causing chaos.

What is it actually about? As part of a new sports law, it was determined that footballers are no longer bound to their home club until they are 24 years old (“vincolo sportivo”). Instead, players should be “free” from the age of 16 - with a few exceptions - and can therefore decide for themselves each year which club they want to move to. This rule was actually supposed to come into effect this year, but a few days ago it was postponed by a year until June 30, 2025.

What does that mean?

In plain language, this means that a player under the age of 24 is no longer automatically free, but is again tied to his home club. If he still wants to move, the club he is leaving and the new club must - as before - find a solution.

“The timing is a disaster.” Klaus Schuster

"This means that numerous transfer agreements are suddenly no longer valid," says South Tyrol's football president Klaus Schuster. "The timing is a disaster. If this had all become official a month ago, the clubs would have been able to adapt. Now some clubs have to rethink their entire purchasing policy for the summer."

A huge mess, then, that is affecting the local amateur league teams from Rome. Incidentally, this regulation applies not only to amateur football, but also to all other sports.