Caceres Clause: A-Leagues, Football Australia remove rule - allowing Alex Paulsen to sign for Auckland FC

The little-known rule preventing Auckland FC from registering their star signing is set to be removed, allowing the transfer to go through.

Football Australia (FA) and the A-Leagues have announced an agreement that the rule known as the Caceres Clause will be phased out by the 2025/26 men’s season. The first part of that process will see clubs with common ownership immediately allowed to engage in loans of two players.

The agreement means that the new A-League club in Auckland can register former Wellington Phoenix goalkeeper Alex Paulsen and he will be able to play in their inaugural season.

Paulsen’s announcement as an Auckland FC player caused a stir not only in Australasia but in the United Kingdom, as his participation in the A-League was subject to the approval of amendments to the A-League Player Contract Regulations by FA, namely the Caceres Clause, which was installed to prevent financial imbalance in the league by multi-club systems.

The rule was so named after it was brought in in 2016 after Manchester City and Melbourne City exploited the multi-club system in for Melbourne to acquire midfielder Anthony Caceres.

As parent club, Manchester City paid the transfer fee for Caceres and then loaned him directly to Melbourne City without him having played a match for Manchester City.

The rule was therefore installed to prevent a parent club from buying players and then loaning back to another A-League club in their system within two transfer windows, as the Manchester and Melbourne clubs did with Caceres.

On the day of Paulsen’s announcement as an Auckland FC player on a season-long loan deal, three months after the reigning A-League Men goalkeeper of the year’s reported $4 million move to English Premier League club AFC Bournemouth, the A-League announced the Caceres Clause would be reviewed before the 2024-25 men’s season.

Alex Paulsen's announcement as an Auckland FC player caused a stir for more than one reason. Photo / Photosport

The loan transfer would have been in breach of the Caceres Clause as Bournemouth are owned by Auckland FC owner Bill Foley as part of his Black Knights consortium.

Auckland FC chief executive Nick Becker told the Herald the club had confidence enough in the Caceres Rule being removed that they could announce Paulsen’s signing before it became official.

“From day one, why we had the confidence to announce this move, we knew that this rule was going to get changed and the FA were going to ratify it. I think the good thing is that it’s been through the due diligence.”

Becker said he was pleased the A-League clubs had agreed the competition had outgrown the rule and that there would be safeguards implemented to prevent abuse from multi-club systems.

“The rule is outdated, the game has changed significantly since it was put in place... there will be guardrails or whatever it needs to make sure there still remains a level playing field. Everyone’s pretty relaxed and confident.”

Becker said other changes discussed included a tweak to salary cap attribution, although he said he felt that was likely to be a more “phased approach” rather than an overnight change.

Will Toogood is an online sports editor for the NZ Herald. He has previously worked for Newstalk ZB’s digital team and at Waiheke’s Gulf News, covering sport and events.