Blatter keen on transfer window for coaches

November 8, 2007

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is in favour of restricting managers from changing clubs outside transfer windows.

Blatter is believed to be unhappy with the way Juande Ramos recently left Sevilla to join Tottenham and Ronald Koeman's sudden departure from PSV Eindhoven to Valencia.

Blatter believes managers should be subject to the same restrictions that govern the movement of players, who can only switch clubs in January and during the summer.

'We will try to extend the rule that is valid for players to coaches,' he said in the Daily Telegraph.

A similar idea was proposed by Stuart Pearce when he was in charge of Manchester City last season, although his aim was to prevent managers being sacked outside of an agreed window.

Ironically, he lost his job at the end of the campaign.

The League Managers Association have welcomed Blatter's proposal to restrict the movement of managers from one club to another - but not by creating a transfer window.

LMA chief executive John Barnwell agrees with the idea in principle, saying on Sky Sports News: 'We think there should be some legislation in there which restricts managers resigning from a football club and joining another football club immediately.'

However, Barnwell believes any legislation should apply only to managers and not to the clubs who employ them.

He said: 'Can you imagine what would happen if clubs were really struggling and wanted to get rid of their manager and couldn't?

'I think you'd be inundated with managers coming and going. I don't see that working at all. I think it would be total chaos.'