How Loan Rules Work in English Football (2024)

The opening of the transfer window sets clubs across the country into a trading frenzy. Amid this chaotic period, some rules have to be followed. In English football, there are specific regulations around how many loan signings a team can make in a single campaign.

Bringing in players on a temporary basis has been much more common for teams in the lower reaches of the footballing pyramid previously. But in recent times, as the competition’s financial restrictions have been tightened, Premier League clubs have entered the loan market in search of an immediate impact without the need for a transfer fee.

Loan deals are beholden to the same shrinking success rate as permanent transfers. For every quick hit, there are multiple panicky flops – although any mistakes are far less expensive. To avoid unfair exploitation of the loan market, new regulations have been brought in ahead of the 2024 summer window. Here is a full guide to how loans work in English football, especially in the Premier League.

Loan Deals Explained

Short-term moves without a transfer fee

Simply put, a loan deal is a temporary transfer to a club in need of a player on a short-term basis. They can last a few weeks or a full campaign, which is known as a season-long loan. These signings are becoming increasingly popular in January, with high-profile clubs looking for an instant impact from players who are deemed to be too expensive to buy on a permanent basis. Examples of this include Chelsea’s signing of Joao Felix in January 2023 and Manchester United’s acquisition of Wout Weghorst from Burnley in the same month.

Premier League clubs often put their young academy players out on loan to teams lower down the pyramid to ensure they are given valuable senior experience. Famously, Harry Kane spent time at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City, and Leicester City. As well as this, Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah had six months at Leeds, and Ian Maatsen impressed on loan at Burnley from Chelsea during the Clarets’ title-winning Championship season in the 2022/23 campaign. Clearly, loans come in different forms and are being increasingly used by clubs across the English top flight.

Loan Allowance For Premier League Clubs

Rules were changed ahead of the 2024 summer window

The Premier League describe loan transactions as “temporary transfers”. Before each season, the league releases an in-depth handbook with regulations on permanent and short-term transfers. The rules for loan transfers in the 2023/24 campaign were as follows:

• Premier League clubs may not register more than two players on loan at any one time.
• The maximum number of loans registrable in the same season is four, and, under no circumstances, shall more than one be from the same club at any one time.
• Premier League clubs cannot loan to another Premier League club a player they have acquired in the same transfer window.
• A Premier League club may loan not more than one of its goalkeepers to another Premier League club.

These rules were introduced by the Premier League ahead of the 2019/20 season. They have continued to change in recent years, with FIFA announcing in January 2022 that by July 2024, the number of players allowed to be loaned out and loaned in will be reduced from eight to six. During the 2023/24 season, clubs were allowed seven loan players in and seven loaned out.

It is worth noting that these restrictions don’t apply to players under the age of 21 or “homegrown” talents, who are defined as players who have spent time at their current club or another in the same country for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21.

Loans Between Associated Clubs

Proposed ban dismissed in Premier League vote

In November 2023, it was announced that Premier League clubs had voted against banning loan moves between associated clubs ahead of the January transfer window. To pass a motion, 14 teams of the 20 teams must vote in favour of the proposal. Overall, the split was 13-7 in favour of a ban, meaning it was narrowly dismissed by the league. Many raised concerns over the possibility of teams like Newcastle United, who are owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), loaning players from the Saudi Pro League to help their cause with the club’s injury crisis in the 2023/24 season.

A dozen Premier League owners have affiliations with other teams across the world. Manchester City have the vastest portfolio of clubs as part of the City Football Group, including Palermo and New York City. In fact, Frank Lampard made the switch to City from sister club, New York City, in the 2014/15 season.

Meanwhile, Chelsea have connections with Strasbourg, and Nottingham Forest are owned by Olympiacos president Evangelos Marinakis. Multi-club ownership is becoming increasingly common in the English top flight, meaning loan deals between the associated parties will only become more common following the failed bid to ban these types of deals. Reporting on the meeting back in November, Sky Sports News chief reporter, Kaveh Solhekol, said:

Loan-to-Buy Option Becoming Popular

Provides an FFP loophole

Given the Premier League’s toughening stance on PSR breaches, as shown by the point deductions dolled out to Nottingham Forest and Everton during the 2023/24 campaign, clubs are increasingly using loan deals to spread out costs. An example of this was Arsenal’s capture of David Raya in August 2023 for a loan fee worth £3m, with a £27m option to buy the Spanish goalkeeper in the summer of 2024.

Mikel Arteta’s side duly exercised the option to purchase Raya following his successful season, which saw him take over Aaron Ramsdale as the club’s number one and win the Premier League Golden Glove. Raya’s agent Jaume Munell confirmed that the deal was completed due to Arsenal’s PSR constraints, explaining: “The formula of the deal is a loan with the option to buy, Arsenal had some Financial Fair Play issues and this is the reason why they haven’t bought him with a permanent transfer.”

Loan deals can also include an obligation to buy based on a player making a certain number of appearances. An example of this was Chris Wood’s switch to Forest in January 2023 from Newcastle United. He had to make a handful of starts for the East Midlands club to ensure that Forest bought him for a fee in the region of £15m. Due to the club’s excessive spending in the summer of 2022, buying an experienced striker on a loan deal with an obligation-to-buy clause was placed in a different financial year to help them spread their costs. Another example of this was Newcastle’s signing of Chelsea youngster Lewis Hall on loan with an obligation to buy for £28m, which was subsequently announced by both sides in July 2024 after he met certain conditions.

EFL Loan Rules

Stricter than the Premier League

Clubs in the Championship, Leagues One and Two are only allowed to register five loan players in their matchday squad. Every club has to submit a 25-man squad to the EFL, with players under the age of 21 not included. However, players under 21 who are on loan must be included in the squad list. It is also worth noting that clubs can’t sign more than four players on loan from another club over the course of a season. Also, more than two of these players are not permitted to be over the age of 23.

Young academy players going on loan to EFL clubs can provide a mutual benefit for both parties. For example, Omari Hutchinson impressed for Ipswich Town, helping them gain promotion to the Premier League in 2024. The Tractor Boys subsequently bought Hutchinson on a permanent deal worth £20m, providing Chelsea with significant profit for an academy prospect. Mason Mount was also a success at Derby County on loan in the 2018/19 campaign, which saw him break into the Chelsea first team the following season under the management of Frank Lampard.

Information gathered from Transfermarkt and the Premier League.