Why deadline day in football is madness

Had war happened? Gosens was firmly scheduled by Berlin for the Bundesliga home game on Friday evening against FC St. Pauli (1:0). What then happened is described by teammate Rani Khedira as follows: “At lunch it was clear that he would stay with us, that he would play.” And then two hours later, after his afternoon nap, the news came that it would work out after all.” Crazy, right? Gosens stood there “almost with tears in his eyes” and was “completely distraught,” Khedira continued. Absurd, right? Even considering that Gosens had flirted with a return to the Italian Serie A this summer, the “how” of the transfer is unacceptable.

But why the fuss? In the end, Gosens’ wish came true, Union can live with the solution, and Florence is looking forward to reinforcements. So everything is fine, right? Why this comment? Because the example of Robin Gosens shows that deadline day can get out of hand. It can become a monopoly with real people. Because even if the players and their agents are certainly not innocent in this game, the circumstances surrounding such last-minute transfers bring out the worst in football. The most capitalist side. The evil face that shows everyone that sport is just a business after all.

You don’t even have to be the great humanist in you to think about the fact that entire families depend on footballers. Children who fall asleep on deadline day and find out the next morning that they have to go to a different school in a different country next week. For some, that may be the price that top athletes pay for their top salaries. But if football keeps emphasising (and it is only too happy to do so) what social responsibility it has, then it has to approach this gambling for livelihoods differently.

And anyway? What kind of signal does it send out into society when clubs and players congratulate each other on a transfer that was completed minutes before the transfer window closed? That it makes sense, even is advisable, to do everything at the last minute? That those who do everything on time and without stress are the ones who are stupid? Well, thank you very much!

Now it is in the nature of things that a time-limited transfer window inevitably has to have a last day, a last hour, a last minute. But at least European football needs to be accelerated, even by next summer, and two agreements need to be reached: firstly, the transfer window must close before the start of the season in the (major) leagues, and secondly, the deadline itself must be the same time everywhere, including local time.

Because if players are transferred out of the starting line-up, it damages the competition, it damages people’s identification with their club, with football as a whole. With every deadline-day transfer, a goalscorer kissing the club crest seems a little more ridiculous.

And on top of that, on deadline day, everyone tries to be cleverer than their partner at the other end of the planned deal. It’s just a shame that football has proven time and again in the past that it can be badly wrong when it thinks it’s cleverer than everyone else. The latest trend has been revealed: loans with an obligation to buy. Economically advisable. In the perception of the football orbit, at least slightly crazy.

If football wants to perfect the deadline day madness, it should definitely take its cue from the NFL. In the US professional football league, players have always been transferred across the country with virtually no say in the matter. That’s the Monopoly Gold Edition. But there’s absolutely nothing about social responsibility in the game instructions. Maybe that’s just annoying.