RFEF close loophole that faciliated 'the Braithwaite incident'

RFEF (The Spanish FA) published its new 'General Rules' this week, and with it settled one of the most controversial issues from last season: the removal of article 124.3.

What is it? The regulation allowed for out-of-market signings in the event of injury, as long as the injury lasted five months or more. The conditions were that they were free agents or simply from the same country, and had caused controversy over the years.

The most recent and most significant impact of the loophole was the 'Braithwaite incident'. In February, FC Barcelona lost Ousmane Dembélé through injury and ended up signing Martin Braithwaite, the star striker of a relegation-bound Leganés team in desperate need of goals. Sevilla had just signed En-Nesyri and this was one step too far.

'Leganés' protested because not only did they run out of strikers, but they were unable to recruit a replacement. Despite the fact that they asked the RFEF for an exemption due to their situation, the RFEF rejected their request to sign Carlos Bacca.

In response, the body chaired by Luis Rubiales heard the protests of the clubs and announced that it was working on amending the rule. After this update published on Tuesday, it will no longer be possible to sign a player outside the transfer window unless the player is a free agent.