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

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.

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“The rule is outdated, the game has changed significantly since it was put in place...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.