Why does upgrading to pro status cost €3M?

I am currently testing some things for a LLM challenge. The teams are all semi-pro, but I wanted to know why does upgrading to professional status cost 2.8 to 3 million euros? Regardless of the league I'm testing. The same thing happened in Andorra, you can't upgrade with 2.7M but you can if you have 2.8 million euros in balance?

Is there a way to change that?

IT is probably a minimum amount to sustain improved contracts and other costs that comes with being proffesional.

It makes absolutely no sense. The game shouldn't have limits on this. Professional club in Andorra cannot have the same requirements as a professional club in Belgium, UK or Turkey. This takes quite of fun from LLM if you are starting in a smaller country. To get to 3 million euros balance, you need to play A LOT. In Andorra, due to league and club rep, scouting limits, staff limits, player limits, contract limits and CA limits (the last one being reasonable), you are unable to pass 2nd Qualifying round of CL. That way you get 600k prize money (and lose at least half of it on wages and other expenses) which means you have a 300k top income every season. That means at least ten worthless seasons of getting eliminated in CL Q2. Going to Q3 is almost impossible due to your weakness and your opponents' strength considering you will never be a seeded team.

Is there a way to alter it?

Does the money actually get removed from your balance? Or is that just a lower limit on clubs turning professional? If it was the latter I'd say it was completely reasonable. When you consider that going from semi-professional to professional you're effectively turning the club from a largely part-time business into a full time one, the costs are going to increase significantly. Training all day every day instead of perhaps a couple of hours a night two nights a week. You're probably going to need full time non football staff. I imagine there would be a lot of paperwork and legal costs involved. All in all, higher standards are going to have to be met in almost every aspect of running a club. Not even taking into account the fact that your player wage bill would increase significantly as you signed them to full time rather than part time contracts.

I understand what you mean but pro status is done through the country league board that has rules and regulations that are set by higher federations in football, even if Andorra league should be lower they have to balance it for all leagues this is why it's all the same.

Does the money actually get removed from your balance? Or is that just a lower limit on clubs turning professional? If it was the latter I'd say it was completely reasonable. When you consider that going from semi-professional to professional you're effectively turning the club from a largely part-time business into a full time one, the costs are going to increase significantly. Training all day every day instead of perhaps a couple of hours a night two nights a week. You're probably going to need full time non football staff. I imagine there would be a lot of paperwork and legal costs involved. All in all, higher standards are going to have to be met in almost every aspect of running a club. Not even taking into account the fact that your player wage bill would increase significantly as you signed them to full time rather than part time contracts.

The money stays in the club's balance. All these expenses multiplied by 10 aren't even close to 3 million euros. On FM13, I played in Estonian league and got upgraded to professional status with only 500k in balance. If you had €1M you could ask them, but now the limit is €3M.

That limit should be tweaked or somehow linked with league reputation/ranking/whatever, this is highly unrealistic. Firstly, the limit of 3 million and lastly the fact that the limit is the same for every league there is.

The money stays in the club's balance. All these expenses multiplied by 10 aren't even close to 3 million euros. On FM13, I played in Estonian league and got upgraded to professional status with only 500k in balance. If you had €1M you could ask them, but now the limit is €3M.

That limit should be tweaked or somehow linked with league reputation/ranking/whatever, this is highly unrealistic. Firstly, the limit of 3 million and lastly the fact that the limit is the same for every league there is.

They might not be close to 3 million Euros, but consider that the club is looking ahead long term. If even just player and footballing staff wages doubled (which is probably a safe estimate) with full time contracts, that would be enough to utterly ruin most amateur clubs within a couple of seasons if income dried up. To become a professional side, they have to consider how long the club can survive at that level. Consider your situation. Would the board of a successful Andorran club really risk the opportunity of going one round further in the Champions League possibly in the near future, if it meant the club was running very close to bankruptcy at all times? What if even one season you failed to qualify for the Champions League? Would you survive then? You are right, the limit should vary for different leagues, but I would imagine around 3 million Euros is a fairly safe estimate for most European clubs.

Edit: Also, which other leagues have you tried in FM14?

I've tried only two leagues except Andorran. Both with higher ranking. I changed the clubs' balance to 500k to 3M and was only able to request professional status in club that had €3M.

I do understand 500k is illogical and also unrealistic. But in my opinion, so is 3 million. What bothers me most is the fact that it's locked to 3 million (2.9 to be exact).

Would the board of a successful Andorran club really risk the opportunity of going one round further in the Champions League possibly in the near future, if it meant the club was running very close to bankruptcy at all times?

The game should recognize between AI and human players. Professional status would mean full time contracts, upgraded scouting range which the player would use a lot better than AI and definitely wouldn't bring the club close to bankrupcy. AI would.