All NZAFF player movements will now be processed entirely within the Sporty system.
A transfer occurs when a player or coach moves from one club to another. A permit (previously referred to as a loan) applies when a player or coach wishes to be loaned, for a set period/competition, from one American Football club to another. Transfer and permit rules remain unchanged.
Players and coaches register with the club they intend to represent, and their registration will appear in a Pending state until approved by a club administrator.
During the approval process, the system checks whether the individual is currently registered with, or has recently been registered with, another club. If a current or recent registration is identified, the system will prompt the administrator to initiate a transfer or permit request.
Transfer and permit requests are submitted by the club the individual wishes to join and must be approved or declined by the club they are leaving (or coming from). If the transfer request is not actioned manually by the club administrator, the request will be automatically approved 10 days after the transfer request is submitted.
All club administrators with Database Admin access will receive email notifications when:
- A new transfer request is submitted (sent to the administrators of the leaving club).
- A transfer is approved or declined (sent to the administrators of the requesting club).
If you do not wish for emails to appear in your inbox, you can create a 'rule' in your email account to automatically move each email into a specific folder.
Note: Anyone who has Database Admin access can approve/decline the transfer.
If a player or coach registers with multiple clubs using different personal details, the system may not recognise them as the same person. If the details are corrected, the system will match the records and automatically trigger a transfer.See the Late Player Transfer/Person Match support article for a detailed explanation of this.
This article includes:
Request a Transfer/Permit
Transfers and permits can be requested either via Online Registrations or, if enabled, by clicking into an individual's record in SuperCRM. Both processes are functionally identical. By approving the registration of a player that has already registered with another club in the previous or current season, the system will prompt you to request a transfer.
Transfers and permits can be requested through either Online Registrations or TeamBuilder or SuperCRM. In SuperCRM there is also the ability to bulk activate eligible players.
Online Registrations
All players who register will appear in Online Registrations with the status of Pending. This status will remain as Pending until a club administrator approves their registration. This will change their to Active, or if a transfer is required, will invoke the transfer process.
From the Dashboard, click the Online Registrations tile and navigate to the folder with the Registration form for the appropriate season.
In the database of registered players. Click the green + button to approve the player.
If no transfer is required, the player will simply change to an Active status.
If the system recognises the player is currently registered with another club (for either the current or previous season) a pop-up will appear:
If you click Request Transfer the following message will be displayed and system will email the club the player is registered to with a transfer request:
If you click Request Permit the following message will display and the system will email the database administrators of the home club the player is registered to, with a permit request.
Note: Once a transfer/permit is requested, the status of the player in your database will display as "Transfer Pending".
When the "home" club (the player is currently registered with) receives the request email, they are prompted to approve or decline the transfer/permit. If the transfer is declined, they are required to enter a reason.
When the request is approved/denied, an email is sent to the club requesting the transfer to notify them it was approved (or declined).
If the "home" club fails to take any action within seven days, the transfer request will automatically be approved to the requesting club.
The seven day calculation is inclusive of the day that the transfer is requested and the day that the transfer would be automatically approved e.g.
- Day 1 - 01/01/2026 - Transfer requested
- Day 2 - 02/01/2026
- Day 3 - 03/01/2026
- Day 4 - 04/01/2026
- Day 5 - 05/01/2026
- Day 6 - 06/01/2026
- Day 7 - 07/01/2026 - Transfer auto approved
The calculation is automatically done each night and will typically cause the final day (Day 7 i.e. day of the auto approval) to be confirmed early in the morning.
SuperCRM
To request a player transfer/permit from the SuperCRM, search for the player in SuperCRM, click into their profile, then to the Registrations tab, then click the green + button to approve. This will invoke the transfer process. See this article for more details.
Monitor Transfers
When a transfer is made, the database administrators of the home club which the player is leaving will receive an email.
Player Transfers – Summary View
In Online Registrations, click the transfer icon located next to your player database to open the Player Transfers Summary view. This shows the status of all pending and completed player transfers for your club in that season.
This view is colour coded to make it easy to see which players require action.
The player's name appears first. Click the players name for the Player transfer – detailed view.
If the player has registered with a 'Preferred Name', their name will be displayed in this format:
- FirstName (Preferred Name) Last Name
Clubs impacted by the player request are listed.
- The name of the club will appear in Green if transfer approval is still required
- The name of the club will appear in Red if transfer was declined
- The name of the club will appear in Black if they do not need to take any further action
The transfer status is also colour coded to show:
- Pending transfers in Green (action still required)
- Declined transfers in Red (transfer/permit request declined)
- Accepted transfers in Black
By default, you will see transfer records in a 'Pending' state because they still require action. You can modify the 'Transfer Status' dropdown to change the display to show 'Accepted,' 'Declined' or 'All' records. You can also export all transfers.
Player Transfers – Detailed View
Clicking a player name will take you to the detailed transfer view.
The Detailed View will display the administrator who approved the transfer (their name appears in brackets beside the accepted date) and date the approval was given. If no name is displayed, this indicates approval was provided automatically.
If the transfer is still awaiting approval by your club, you can action the transfer from the Detailed View by clicking Decline Transfer or Approve Transfer.
Note: You should only approve a transfer if the club the player is transferring to has paid/committed to pay any required transfer fees, and you have confirmed the player does not have any remaining financial or contractual obligations to your club.
A confirmation prompt will be displayed when clicking Approve Transfer. A comment may be added regarding the transfer and its approval. Click OK to continue.
A confirmation prompt will be displayed upon clicking Decline Transfer. It is mandatory to enter the reason the transfer/draft request is being declined. Click OK to decline the transfer request.
TeamBuilder
As players register, they appear in TeamBuilder highlighted in red with an ! beside their name. This status will remain as ! until an club administrator approves their registration changing this status to a tick. Each player needs to be approved to be eligible to play.
1. From the Dashboard, click the TeamBuilder tile and navigate to the competition.
2. Click into the appropriate team.
3. Click the !.
4. Click Make Active to approve the player.
5. Once approved the player will display a tick beside their name.
SuperCRM Bulk Activation
Through SuperCRM there is the ability to bulk approve registrations from a Pending to an Active state. This makes it easy to approve your players in bulk rather than individually clicking the + to approve each player. Note that registrations requiring a transfer are not able to be bulk activated. You will need to individually complete the transfer process. See this support article that explains the bulk approval process.
Troubleshooting
Q: I approved a player, but no transfer request was triggered. Why?
A: There are two common reasons this might occur:
-
Mismatched personal details:
The system relies on exact matches for key fields - first name, last name, and date of birth. If these were entered incorrectly either in your registration or the player's previous registration, the system may not detect the match and therefore won’t trigger a transfer. -
Pending status with the previous club:
If the player was never approved by their previous club (i.e., their registration remained in a Pending state), the system does not recognise them as an officially registered player. In this case, there is no transfer to invoke.