Is a fax machine still used in football transfers?

Every time someone hears a fax machine during a transfer window the name David De Gea automatically pops up in one's mind.

It was the deadline day of the summer transfer window in 2015. De Gea had reached Madrid in order to complete his dream move to Real Madrid and Keylor Navas was ready to come to England and join Manchester United as part of a swap deal.

However, the deal did not materialise in the end due to paperwork issues. At that time, it was reported that the deal was held up as there were some technical issues with Manchester United's fax machines and they couldn't send the paperwork in time to Real Madrid.

Thankfully, such issues will never occur again as fax machines are no longer in use for completing football transfers.

Is a fax machine still used in football transfers?

The answer is no. Fax machines are no longer used by clubs to transfer documents as there are multiple more efficient alternatives.

Premier League clubs mostly opt to send documents via desktop faxes or scanned through e-mail to both the league and the other party.

The new technology speeds up the process of paperwork compared to fax machines and allows teams to finish a transfer process within the deadline.

Speaking to The Athletic, Wolves company secretary Matt Wild said: "It’s all email and DocuSign now. We’ve moved on from the fax machines. Everything now is uploaded. We have a Premier League portal, which links to the EFL and FA, to upload documents, send them and then everyone has got it. It’s the same with FIFA.

"We won’t leave until it’s all done, one way or the other. The Premier League will be there for you until the early hours of the morning. We would have been speaking to them early in the night to give them a heads up if there was a late one going through."