Newcastle United and clubs across Europe will be unable to spread out transfer fees beyond the first five years of a contract following a new rule introduced by UEFA.
Clubs have previously been able to pay off big-money transfer fees over the entire length of a long-term deal in an accounting practice known as amortisation to help comply with Financial Fair Play regulations. So, for example, Newcastle could record Sandro Tonali's mooted £55m transfer fee as £9.16m-a-year in the club's accounts as opposed to £11m-a-year if the Magpies tie the Italy international down to a six-year deal as expected.
However, Newcastle will have to ensure the transfer is registered by June 30 to do so with Tonali as any deal completed from Saturday onwards will now have to comply with the new regulations. UEFA have felt moved to act after Chelsea signed a host of players to extraordinarily long contracts in the last 12 months, including Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk (eight years), Benoit Badiashile (seven-and-a-half years) and Wesley Fofana (seven years).
UEFA's executive committee have amended their licensing and financial sustainability regulations so clubs now have a maximum of five years to pay off transfers - even if longer contracts can still be offered.
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"The amortisation of the player’s registration will be limited to five years in order to ensure equal treatment of all clubs and improve financial sustainability," a statement read.
"In case of contract extension, the amortisation can be spread over the extended contract period but up to a maximum of five years from the date of the extension.
'Such a change will not restrict the way in which clubs operate (i.e. clubs that are allowed by their national governing bodies to conclude player contracts for a period exceeding five years can continue to do so) and will not apply retroactively to transfer operations that have already taken place."
