History
The concept of a football transfer first came into existence in England after the Football Association (FA) introduced player registration sometime after 1885.
Before that, a player could agree to play one or more games for any football club. After the FA recognized professionalism in 1885, it sought to control professional players by introducing a player registration system. Players had to register with a club each season, even if he remained with the same club from the season before. A player was not allowed to play until he was registered for that season. Once a player was registered with a club, he was not allowed to be registered with or play for another club during the same season without the permission of the FA and the club that held his registration. The players however, were free to join another club before the start of each season, even if their former club wished to retain them.
Sometime after the Football League was formed in 1888, the Football League decided that restrictions had to be placed on the ability of richer clubs to lure players from other clubs to prevent the league being dominated by a handful of clubs. From the start of the 1893–94 season onwards, once a player was registered with a Football League club, he could not be registered with any other club, even in subsequent seasons, without the permission of the club he was registered with. It applied even if the player's annual contract with the club holding his registration was not renewed after it expired. The club was not obliged to play him and, without a contract, the player was not entitled to receive a salary. Nevertheless, if the club refused to release his registration, the player could not play for any other Football League club.
Football League clubs soon came to realize that they could demand and earn a transfer fee from any other Football League club as consideration for agreeing to release or transfer the player's registration.
In 1912, Charles Sutcliffe helped establish the legality of this "retain-and-transfer system" when he successfully represented the club Aston Villa during the Kingaby case. Former player, Herbert Kingaby had brought legal proceedings against Villa for preventing him from playing. Erroneous strategy by Kingaby's counsel resulted in the suit being dismissed.
In England, the "retain" aspect of the system was removed after a decision by the High Court in 1963 in Eastham vs. Newcastle United that it was unreasonable. The transfer system remained unchanged until the Bosman ruling.
Read more about this topic: Transfer (association Football)
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