Why are Wolves and Aston Villa getting two Premier League summer transfer windows?
Wolves and Aston Villa will have the chance to sign players in two different summer transfer windows next season - following a Premier League announcement.
An announcement this week has confirmed that the transfer window will open between Sunday June 1 and Tuesday June 10, before closing for five days.
It will then run again from June 16 to September 1, when it slams shut until January.
It is the first time such a move has happened in the Premier League. But why is this happening?
The issue is the expanded FIFA Club World Cup, that involves 32 teams and is now adopting the regular format of the World Cup.
Chelsea and Man City are the Premier League sides in the US based tournament, that starts on June 15.
So, to allow both sides to be able to sign players before the tournament, the Premier League has moved to split the transfer windows in two.
Why is this necessary?
FIFA only allows transfer windows to be open in a certain country for 16 weeks a year, and in Europe four of those are in the winter leaving 12 for the summer.
Back in October, FIFA allowed countries around the world to have an additional window in June, so the clubs in the Club World Cup can register new players before the competition kicks off.
And in order to ensure Man City and Chelsea did not have an advantage over the other 18 top flight clubs, the Premier League has made the same move.
However, the 12 weeks they are permitted means if the window opened on June 1, it would have to close on August 24.
So, to ensure they aligned with the rest of Europe, the window has to close for a brief five day period before re-opening.
