On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization declared the existence of a public health emergency of international importance (PHEIC) and classified the virus SARS-CoV2 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Around the world, governments and organisations are seeking to introduce contingency rules to deal with the epidemic and the disease (COVID-19) caused by it.

This situation has had an enormous effect on football, with the suspension of virtually all football competitions across the globe. At the moment, for example, the competitions represented in the World Leagues Forum (www.worldleaguesforum.com), founded in 2016, which represents the main professional leagues of national football associations, have all been suspended or postponed.

This is an unprecedented situation in football and, since World War II, we have not witnessed a general suspension of competitions like the one we are seeing now.

This suspension is creating a number of very significant problems that are now beginning to have an impact. FIFA recently published a first document called 'COVID 19 - Football Regulatory Issues - FIFA Working Group - March 2020’ in which it addresses a wide range of problems that football is facing at the moment.

First, the resumption of competitions.

FIFA considers that does not have the power to give specific indications regarding the date of resumption of competitions in each country or territory.

Therefore, it recommends that this decision be made by each of its members, in accordance with the recommendations of the public health authorities of each country. It adds that, in this particular situation, health should be the guiding principle for FIFA, it member associations and other stakeholders in the footballing world.

However, FIFA has acknowledged that it has a responsibility to provide appropriate guidance and recommendations to its members and their stakeholders to both mitigate the consequences of disruptions caused by COVID-19 and ensure that any response is harmonised in the common interest.

Among many different issues, FIFA identified three core matters that need to be addressed urgently:

• Expiring agreements (agreements terminating at the end of the current season) and new agreements (those already signed and due to being at the start of the next season);

• Agreements breached or frustrated as a consequence of COVID-19;

• The appropriate timing for registration periods (“transfer windows”);

Accordingly, on 18 March 2020, the Bureau of the FIFA Council set up a working group to examine, among other things, the need to make changes to the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP). These changes should provide for temporary suspensions of the application of the RSTP to protect contracts for both players and clubs, and for adjustments to transfer periods.