Will the "Webster" Clause be apart of FM09?

For players transferring within or into EU leagues , Article 17 states that for a player who

- is aged 23 to 28 and moving into the final year of a 4 or 5 year contract

- OR anytime after second year for a player aged over 28

That they may negotiate terms and leave for a new club so long as;

- they hand in the transfer request within 15 days of the end of the previous season

- they join a club from a different FA

- they pay-out the remainder of their contract.

So will the "Webster" clause be apart of the game in any way? There still hasn't been a high-profile test case but rule seems pretty explicit and the cases that failed (Essam Al Hadari from Egypt) only failed because of the 15-day period.

It'll certainly change the dynamic of the game (and real life soccer as well) as long term club-servants who feel poorly treated can't be held to their contracts anymore, long-term contracts need to be renewed well before the close of the contract to stop players leaving for pittance, and players over 28 years of age would need to be given huge wages to keep them happy and at the club.

For players transferring within or into EU leagues , Article 17 states that for a player who

- is aged 23 to 28 and moving into the final year of a 4 or 5 year contract

- OR anytime after second year for a player aged over 28

That they may negotiate terms and leave for a new club so long as;

- they hand in the transfer request within 15 days of the end of the previous season

- they join a club from a different FA

- they pay-out the remainder of their contract.

So will the "Webster" clause be apart of the game in any way? There still hasn't been a high-profile test case but rule seems pretty explicit and the cases that failed (Essam Al Hadari from Egypt) only failed because of the 15-day period.

It'll certainly change the dynamic of the game (and real life soccer as well) as long term club-servants who feel poorly treated can't be held to their contracts anymore, long-term contracts need to be renewed well before the close of the contract to stop players leaving for pittance, and players over 28 years of age would need to be given huge wages to keep them happy and at the club.

Well, I hope that this won't be included in the game, mainly because the legal implications of the CAS judgment are everything but clear. Let me, as the legal head of a club, explain:

The CAS has not ruled that players can terminate their contracts!

They were just asked to set the compensation!

According to most legal systems in Europe (to my knowledge only Switzerland is different there) a contract with a set end date cannot be unilaterally termined at all. Consequently there are very serious doubts about whether at all players can leave their clubs like Webster did. Chances are that Webster could only leave because Hearts agreed and just asked for a high compensation.

Secondly, even if players could leave, CAS ruled that the clubs are free to negotiate compensation fees individually and bindingly with the players as Article 17 provides for just that. Consequently, if that was added to the game, so would have t obe an option to negotiate the compensation fee in contract talks. That's what we do in every contract - notwithstanding that we assume this to be irrelevant.

hth