James Johnson, the new Chief Executive Officer for Football Federation Australia, has announced his total support to start implementing root-and-branch changes to the game. He wants to see domestic clubs cashing in on the global transfer market, currently valued at over AU$11 billion annually. Domestic clubs contribute a paltry AU$2 million towards that figure each year.
Johnson has said that he wants this country to be hardwired into that international market and he’s 100% behind removing the lengthy ban on domestic transfer fees to make this happen.
As things currently stand, A-League and grassroots Football clubs across the country are not allowed to pay transfer fees to another Australian club to sign a player. Foreign clubs are allowed to, and A-League sides have, on a few rare occasions, made payments for international players to relocate here.
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But the prohibition on domestic transfer fees has resulted in grassroots and professional clubs not seeing any kind of profit from their work developing up-and-coming players and then selling them to local rivals.
Johnson has called this situation problematic, saying that more players are moving across international borders every year but there’s a downturn in Australians doing so.
Clubs around the world completed just over 18 international transfers last year, to the value of AU$11.14 billion, with a 5.8% growth on total transfer fees from 2018. Australian clubs provided just under AU$2 million to that figure and Johnson wants to change that with a reasonable domestic transfer system.




