FIDE Updates Federation Transfer Rules, reduces Transfer Fees

2021-02-06
Changes to the Transfer Regulations


During the last General Congress, some important changes were introduced to the Transfer Regulations and Rules of Eligibility for Players, which apply to all those who are in the process of changing federations. These changes are effective from December 01, 2020, which means they are applied retrospectively.

The first main change is that the notification fee, paid for every transfer, is reduced fivefold, from 250€ to 50€. No notification fee is required for FIDE flag players who have never been registered with a National Federation.

Second, some changes have been introduced to speed up the process and reduce the time a player has to wait to represent his/her new federation in an official FIDE event and became eligible to a fee-exempted transfer.

Under the previous regulations, a player should wait for two years after initiating the transfer.

Now, this 2-year period starts counting from the moment the player has competed in his/her last official FIDE event representing his previous federation, regardless of when he initiates the transfer. This modification can effectively shorten the duration of the transition period and allow the player to represent his new country much earlier.

A transfer is considered to be completed when either the old Federation has written a letter of non-objection or 90 days have passed since the old Federation was informed.

You can read the complete regulations in the FIDE Handbook, Chapter B042020.