Aston Villa’s sale of English forward to Southampton under FA investigation

Premier League’s Aston Villa sold their forward Cameron Archer to league rivals Southampton FC in a deal worth around £15 million in the ongoing transfer window. As per a recent report by ‘CaughtOffside‘, the Midlands-based club’s sale of the player could come under FA investigation, as it has been tipped to break transfer rules established by FIFA itself.

The Sun’s Alan Nixon reportedly explained the conundrum of Villa’s sale of Archer to the Saints. Nixon pointed out that the major conflict with Archer’s transfer was Villa offloading the player at a deadline that was too ‘soon’ after they initially bought the English forward.

Apparently a certain set of rules by FIFA express – “No club or player shall be involved in a bridge transfer, It shall be presumed, unless established to the contrary, that if two consecutive transfers of the same player occur within a period of 16 weeks, the parties involved have participated in a bridge transfer.”

On the sanctions part, the rule imposes – “The FIFA Disciplinary Committee will impose sanctions on any party involved in a bridge transfer.”

Even though Aston Villa’s sale of Archer to Southampton FC is termed to be fine with the Premier League’s upper hierarchy, the FA’s investigation could bring worrying outcomes for the club.

How things progress on this one in terms of any further official updates, remains yet to be witnessed.