1. FC Köln has a sad certainty. It is not allowed to sign any players for two transfer seasons. These are the exceptions.
Thursday will go down as a black Thursday in the history of Bundesliga club 1. FC Köln. First the separation from coach Steffen Baumgart after an underground half-season.
Then the confirmation from the Cas (International Court of Arbitration for Sport) that FC is not allowed to sign any external players for two transfer periods.
What does this mean for 1. FC Köln? First of all, nothing will happen in the winter. The desired center forward and defensive midfielder will not be able to come.
However, something could happen on the outgoing side. Noah Katterbach (contract ends in the summer, HSV are said to be interested), Dimitrios Limnios (contract ends in the summer) and Sargis Adamyan (contract until 2026, to be loaned out) are not playing a role, even without an addition.
In the summer, a lot will depend on whether FC can stay in the league or not. If it manages to stay in the league, it can certainly keep the majority of the team. In the event of relegation, this does not apply. It would then be impossible to keep key players such as Jeff Chabot, Eric Martel or Dejan Ljubicic, and FC would also be dependent on the transfer fee due to the shortfall in revenue in the Bundesliga 2.
What is not known in the event of relegation: Which player has a contract for the Bundesliga 2? And which player may have an exit clause in the event of relegation?
Much more important, however, is the question: Who can FC Köln add to the squad? The general rule is: Cologne can sign external players, but they may not be registered for match operations.
However, there are exceptions:
1. players currently on loan from FC
Players who return to FC after the season are allowed to play for Cologne in the new season, as they were already registered there.
This currently applies to four players. Accordingly, Jonas Urbig (loaned to Greuther Fürth), Tim Lemperle (loaned to Greuther Fürth), Nikola Soldo (loaned to 1. FC Kaiserslautern), Marvin Obuz (loaned to Rot-Weiss Essen) and Maximilian Schmid (Roda Kerkrade) are allowed to play for Cologne in the 2024/25 season.
2. players currently on loan from FC
The players currently on loan are also likely to be signed. They are also already registered for Cologne. If there are purchase options, the club could exercise them if it had the money to do so. The only question is whether the players would go to the 2nd division or whether there are clauses stating that the purchase options only apply to the Bundesliga.
Should this not be the case, case 2 would apply to the following players. Luca Waldschmidt (on loan from VfL Wolfsburg), Rasmus Carstensen (on loan from KRC Genk) and Faride Alidou (on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt).
3. expiring contracts of own players
Contracts of Cologne players that expire in the summer can be extended. The same applies here: players who have already been registered can continue to play for Cologne. This applies to the expiring contracts of Noah Katterbach, Dimitrios Limnios (should the two not leave in the winter), Philipp Pentke, Dominique Heintz and Benno Schmitz after the season.
4. youth players
Of course, based on the above-mentioned logic, talented players may also receive a professional contract, as they were previously registered with FC. However, the U19s, U17s and U21s are also not allowed to sign external players, as the transfer ban does not only apply to the professional team.
When can FC sign and register new external players?
The ban applies to the next two transfer periods. One ends on February 1, 2024, while the summer transfer period ends on either August 31, 2024 or September 1, 2024. FC would then have two transfer periods suspended. And it would presumably be allowed to start again if there are players without contracts on the market after September 1 who can also be signed outside of a transfer period. Journalist Chaled Nahar denied this on the online platform X, according to which FC would only be allowed to sign new players again from January 1, 2025