Semi-Pro to Pro status

Hi everyone,

Im currently managing Linfield in Northern Ireland Premier League,but what i have recently noticed is that my teams status is "Semi-Pro" should this surely not be "Pro" seeing as the team are in european competition more or less every season?

Is there anything i can do personally within the squad possibly to improve the club status perhaps,like contracts or anything like that?

Thanks in advance

Not always the case. Many teams entering UEFA's club competitions are semi professional.

Linfield, as stated on many internet sites, including Wikipedia, puts them in this bracket.

One way to improve the clubs status is to go out and dominate UEFA's club competitions which will therefore raise the reputation of both club and the country that your team is in.

A lot of teams in smaller leagues are semi pro, for example clubs in Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.

They can turn fully professional given the right circumstances but this depends on the board and you need a fair bit of money. I've seen the likes of Bangor & TNS in the Welsh leagues do it while in my current save where I'm managing Cliftonville no clubs in Northern Ireland are pro while in the Republic only Sligo Rovers are.

Ah cool,so more or less the better that you do in European Competition more or less decides if you are gonna go pro staus then really? Not that there is much chance of that happening all the same,i was given odds of 1500/1 for the Europa League

It's up to the board. It's not a matter of success, it's a matter of finance. Well, obviously more success usually equals more money, but it's still more about the money if you can get it into the coffers in other ways. If the board deems it financially viable, then they'll turn professional. Remember, turning professional means that everyone at the club needs to sign a professional contract, which is a massive drain on money for a club that's used to being able to have players on non-contract or part-time basis.

Cheers for the advice lads!!!

I'm trying to turn semi-pro! about 350k in the bank at the moment but not doing great on-field!

Ah OK I was wondering this myself. Do we know if there is some kind of threshold to meet before a board is likely to turn pro? For example..if you have a squad of 20 and they figure out each pro contract is likely to be an average of 200 GBP a week x 52 weeks = wage budget needed a year to be a pro club - OR - does it not go into that kind of detail?

I'm just trying to figure out how much the club i am managing is likely to need before we turn pro!

Someone told me on a forum that it sometimes helps if you can get most of your players to move from a "part time" contract to a "full time" contract,ive gave this a go.Dunno if it will help all the same,My finances are stable noit the best in the world though.Just about to start season two with Linfield.

I managed to get an okay from the board for turning my club to professional when we had around 1-1,2 million euros in our balance.

Don't know if that helps, but that's how it is.

I must also mention though that I managed to ruin that because I was so excited from the money we had that I also asked for a youth training facilities upgrade, got it and then the turn to professional didn't happen due to the lack of resources :o

I managed to get an okay from the board for turning my club to professional when we had around 1-1,2 million euros in our balance.

Don't know if that helps, but that's how it is.

I must also mention though that I managed to ruin that because I was so excited from the money we had that I also asked for a youth training facilities upgrade, got it and then the turn to professional didn't happen due to the lack of resources :o

Haha i shall need to keep that in mind

I'm having similar trouble, i sold a player for 2.4 million and the board agreed to go professional from semi-professional, and nearly a year has gone by and we havent gone professional. How long does it take usually?

There are only 3 ways (AFAIK) in which you can turn pro and they are as follows:

1) You get taken over by a tycoon and you will turn pro instantly

2) You end the season with a high enough bank balance and you turn pro at the start of the next season

3) You get promoted to a league which demands that the clubs within it are professional (League 2 for e.g.) and turn pro at the start of the season you enter the league

In my experience in N.Ireland and other similar leagues you need to have at least £2.5m cash come seasons end (when everything is reset). If you have less than this figure you won't turn professional regardless of whether the board has promised you this.

You can't offer full-time contracts at semi-pro clubs either (regardless of what the hint in the game tells you). You used to be able to in previous iterations of the game but I guess it was a kind of an exploit as you could be a semi-pro club while having everybody on a full-time contract and gain the benefits that come from that.