Ahead of the 2025-26 Isuzu UTE A-League season, the ‘Caceres Clause’ will no longer be enforced in the Australian domestic player transfer market. But what exactly is the ‘Caceres Clause’, and what will this change mean for the Isuzu UTE A-League? aleagues.com.au explains.
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What is the ‘Caceres Clause’?
In 2016, Anthony Caceres sealed a transfer from Central Coast Mariners to Manchester City, and was immediately sent on loan to Melbourne City, a sister club of the Premier League outfit.
This sequence of events led to the introduction of the ‘Caceres Clause’, which prohibits the registration of a player to an A-Leagues club if they are bought from a rival A-Leagues outfit by an overseas club from within the same ownership group.
… but that’s all about to change
On Friday, August 30 Australian Professional Leagues (APL), in conjunction with Football Australia (FA) and Professional Footballers Australia (PFA), announced a joint commitment to phase out the Caceres Clause ahead of the 2025-26 Isuzu UTE A-League season.
Together APL, FA and PFA concluded the Caceres Clause is outdated and is no longer fit for purpose in the domestic transfer market due to several factors:
- The evolution of the Australian football landscape
- The broader globalisation of the football economy
- Increased investment in A-Leagues clubs by international football club ownership groups
- Increase in value of A-Leagues players on the global market
- Increase interest in players moving between A-leagues clubs
- Longer A-Leagues player contracts
These factors have all contributed to a staggering rise in transfer revenue in the A-Leagues rising from $2.6m in 2021 to $20.6m in 2024.
And so, the process to remove the ‘Caceres Clause’ will occur across two phases. Phase 1 has already begun, and Phase 2 will begin in the lead-up to season 2025-26.
Phase 1 – Already underway
From today, the Caceres Clause has been amended to allow transfers involving clubs with common ownership. However, there are two guardrails in place:
1. A maximum of two players from any multi-club network can be loaned back into the A-League at any one time.
A loan would be cleared from these guardrails if a player on loan was purchased more than two Registration Periods ago or their Standard Player Contract with the A-Leagues Club would have expired prior to the loan.
2. Salary cap treatment
For a player returning to the A-Leagues from an overseas parent club, the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) will have the final say on what salary will be applied within their new club’s salary cap.
The APL will consider applying the higher of either:
a) The player’s salary at their former A-Leagues at the time of the transfer, or;
b) The player’s salary at the purchasing/parent club at the time of the loan back to the A-Leagues
For example: let’s say a player is earning $100,000 at Club X in the A-Leagues. He’s then signed by an overseas club on a salary of $200,000, and loaned to Club Y in the A-Leagues (club Y is in the same ownership group as the overseas club).
In this case, the APL has the right to direct Club Y to apply the higher salary from his parent club ($200,000) rather than the $100,000 salary paid by his former A-Leagues club in the salary cap.
On the other hand, if the player leaves Club X in the A-Leagues on a salary of $200,000 and is put on $100,000 at his new overseas club before being loaned to Club Y, the APL has the right to instruct Club Y to apply the higher salary of $200,000 from his former A-Leagues club into the salary cap.
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Phase 2 – Ahead of 2025-26
Phase 2 will begin ahead of the 2025-26 Isuzu UTE A-League season, and will focus on considering ways to enhance the broader A-Leagues’ economic model in a review of the domestic transfer system between the APL, PFA and FA.
The focus of Phase 2 will be to assess the current structure of the salary cap and explore the potential benefits of transfer fee payments between A-Leagues clubs – something that is not currently permitted under Football Australia’s National Registration, Status and Transfer Regulations.
Any changes in Phase 2 will be considered by the Professional Football Committees, which include representation from the APL, clubs and players and regularly assess key strategic matters including commercial, broadcast, and high-performance areas and the A-Leagues’ economic model.
