End of Contract - Bosman ruling

Hi All,

Started playing Football Manager 2015 fairly recently and I have a question.

I am managing in the Conference, and I am in February 2015. I noticed that when I go to players who have their contract expiring in June/July 2015, I cannot sign them on a free. The Option Approach to Sign is not there.

Why is that? Previous versions were that I could approach a player who had his contract expiring in 6 months.

Any new rule which I have not heard about?

You can sign players from foreign clubs when they have six months left on their contract. I think with transfers from other UK sides it's one month.

The new rule is that you cannot discuss an actual contract with a player who is at an English based club if you're also an English based club. Foreign clubs will be able to discuss terms with any of these players unfortunately but in the same way you can sort pre-contract agreements with players at clubs abroad (admittedly a bit harder to scout in the conference). You will only be able to discuss terms with domestic players 1 month before their contract expires, so the 30th May is a date to remember.

Thanks guys, did not know about this rule. Is it something implemented IRL this season?

Been in place IRL and the game for many seasons I believe.

One thing to remember is that whilst English sides cannot approach to sign players in England in January, Scottish, Welsh and Irish clubs can. So if you have a player who's contract is expiring at the end of the season english sides cannot poach him until near the end of the season but sides from the rest of the UK can approach him from January onwards.