Three years ago, football fan Craig Tennant took to the website Change.org and launched a petition. Accompanied by the hashtag #HateFootballLoveBarnsley, the disgruntled Tykes fan appealed to FIFA to abolish the winter transfer window.



His argument centred on the feeling that lower-placed clubs can be easy prey in January, as successful and wealthy outfits first destabilise and then cherry-pick talent, often throwing the player’s club — in this case Tennant’s Barnsley — into mid-season disarray.



Tennant wrote: “A football club should be able (to) assemble a squad in one summer window and if the recruitment isn’t good enough, or they don’t give youth the chance, they should not have the power or opportunity to destroy smaller clubs’ seasons. This isn’t good for the fans. It is isn’t good for the smaller clubs. The only people it benefits are the greedy footballers themselves and the playboy owners. Ban the...