Can I still change clubs after 1 September and play for the first team?

31 August: the first-team deadline

For amateurs in the provincial and higher amateur divisions the rule is simple. If your transfer or registration takes place on 31 August at the latest, you can play for the first team all season. If it happens later, first-team football is ruled out.

This applies in three situations:

• an ordinary (‘witte’) transfer between 1 September and 30 June;
• joining a new club after 31 August, having resigned in April;
• an administrative transfer, at any point in the season.

What can you do after 1 September?

• Play official matches for your new club's reserves, youth teams and veterans.
• Arrange your transfer already, so you are eligible for the first team from 1 July.

The exceptions

• Recreational football: the first-team restriction does not apply.
• Women players: after an ordinary transfer between 1 September and 31 December you may play for the first team in the provincial divisions from 1 January.
• Contract players in the higher divisions: broader rules apply to players with a paid-sportsperson contract (at least until the end of the season) at a club in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd division or in professional football, including a winter transfer window from 2 January to 3 February.
• Your old club is no longer active: if your club's highest-ranked first team is fully or largely inactive, has withdrawn from the league (general forfeit), is suspended or has to play in a reserve league, you may play for the first team after an administrative transfer.
• Injured goalkeeper: if an amateur club, through force majeure such as a long-term injury, no longer has a fully fit goalkeeper for each senior team, the transfer of a goalkeeper can be validated as an exception.

The player and club apply for this exceptional validation together with the federation's High Council, within 14 days of the discovery and no later than 15 March of the season. The club pays a fee (€100 in the provincial divisions).

Does this apply to youth players too?

The restriction concerns official first-team matches. Youth players can simply play for their youth team after a mid-season transfer. For youth players too, the current club does have to agree to an ordinary transfer.

Note: two clubs per season at most

In one season you may play official matches for at most two clubs and be registered with at most three. If you have already played for another club this season, take that into account.