Club Transfer

Club Transfer

How do I transfer a club?

Where a member of a Club wishes to leave one club and join another Club (new or existing)

(a) in the same membership year, they must arrange for the Swim Ireland Transfer form to be completed and returned to the Swim Ireland office together with the relevant transfer fee;

(b) within 24 months of the date of leaving the original Club, a Swim Ireland Transfer form must be completed and returned to the Swim Ireland office together with the relevant transfer fee.

(c) After 24 months or more has passed since the date of leaving the original Club, no transfer form or fee is required.

If the transferring member owes fees to Swim Ireland or the Club or holds Club property and/or has had a complaint made against them which is in process or pending or in relation to which a sanction has been issued but not yet served, then the Club may withhold the transfer form until the matter is reasonably resolved otherwise the Club must complete the transfer form as appropriate within 7 days of receipt of the transfer request.

Transfers are automatically in force within 7 clear days of their confirmed receipt by the Swim Ireland office. Responsibility for obtaining confirmation of receipt rests with the Club or the relevant transferee.

Where the member’s original Club does not re-affiliate with Swim Ireland in the relevant year or is dissolved a transfer is not required by the member joining another Club and there will be no transfer fee. In this case, the member is free to take part in relay events immediately.

For the purpose of Relay Events, a swimmer may not compete for the Club to which they have transferred within three calendar months of the completion of the transfer in accordance with the procedure set out above.

Water-polo transfers must be submitted to both the Swim Ireland office and the IWPA to be effective.

First Claim

A Member may be a member of more than one Club. But a Member who is a member of more than one Club can only compete in open competition for the Club with whom they first registered as a member of Swim Ireland. If they wish to compete in open competition for any other Club they must transfer to that Club in accordance with the Transfer Rule above save for clause 4 below.

A Member may take part in swimming competitions for one Club and in another discipline’s events (e.g. water polo) for another Club. However Swim Ireland must first be informed of the Member’s membership of the other Club(s) before the Member competes in a second discipline’s events.

Members who are members of a Club and enrolled in a university or school swimming club as well must compete in priority for their university or school against their Club except when a swimmer's university or school and Club are competing in the same Regional or National competition in which case the Member can only compete in open competition for the Club with whom they first registered as a member of Swim Ireland.

When Masters Swimmers are competing in Open Masters Competitions in Ireland they must compete for their first claim club. However, when competing in Open Masters competitions abroad they may compete for their other club(s) if not required by their first claim club.