15:17h CEST

FIFA are working on establishing a policy which affects the number of players any particular club can have sent out on loan at any given time. Eight players is the limit that football's governing body are considering imposing with no limit currently in place.

The move has been revealed by German daily Sport Bild and if introduced could play a significant roles in future transfer deals with the situation in Serie A being the most dramatic in terms of the major European leagues.

The tendency to sign players as an investment, loan them out and hope they flourish has long been standard practice in the Italian league. Bergamo based Atalanta are the prime exponent of this culture with 77 Atalanta owned players currently on loan with third party clubs. This does pale into comparison with the 379 players that were registered as official Parma Calcio players in 2013. Serie A leaders Juventus currently have 40 players out on loan with a current market value of 105 million euro.

Full screen Atalanta - JuventusTifosi Atalanta Bergamo 6-03-2016 Stadio Atleti Azzurri - Football Calcio Serie A Atalanta - Juventus. Foto Giuseppe Celeste / Insidefoto Insidefoto (Insidefoto)

Premier League and LaLiga

This extensive loan culture is also commonplace in England with Chelsea currently having 40 of their players on loan with the collective value of these individuals topping 180 million euro. Manchester City currently have 27 City owned players on loan with Manchester United (9) and Arsenal next in line with 7.

In Spain the trend is less dramatic though 146 LaLiga club players are currently away from their parent clubs on a loan term. Real Madrid being the main culprits with 21 players: James, Kovacic, Theo, Lunin, Mayoral, Achraf, De Tomás, Odegaard... along with a myriad of younger talents currently plying their respective trades away from the Bernabeu.

Atlético have 16 currently out on loan followed by Barcelona (15) and Villarreal with 14.

Serie A players on loan (by club) Atalanta 77 Bologna 25 Genoa 43 Fiorentina 25 Sassuolo 41 Nápoli 24 Juventus 40 Roma 23 Torino 40 Cagliari 22 Inter 37 Udinese 19 Chievo 33 AC Milán 18 Sampdoria 31 SPAL 17 Parma 30 Lazio 11 Empoli 26 Frosinone 10 source: Transfermarkt.

Situation in European clubs Team Country Players out on loan Chelsea ENG 40 Man. City ENG 27 Wolverhampton ENG 26 Sporting Portugal POR 24 Benfica POR 21 Oporto POR 18 Liverpool ENG 16 Man. United ENG 9 Arsenal ENG 7 PSG FRA 6 Tottenham ENG 5 Bayern GER 3 Dortmund GER 3 Clubs with players on loan out. source: Transfermarkt.