[Discussion] Can Wage budget be increased in any way? Should it?

[rristola]

First, I use mods. I play lower leagues, so budgets are in thousands. Both staff and players are part time or non-contract. But, what can be done in game should still be the same.

 

So, I need money. Transfer budget is 0, so I can't get anything from there. Board says NO! Question: can I increase Wage budget in any way?                          (Yes, I have arranged Frendlies aso., but just didn't follow all the coins...)

 

Have you, players, found any way to increase wage budget in the game? Any good mods?

[Suggestions]

Friendlies at home - what about if you could get like 50% of net income into your budget?

Community Outreach - with more fans you should also be able to sell some fan stuff (of course, depending on amount of fans, club size, aso.).

NEW Sponsorship happening (using two training slots) - first Match Practise (or something), and then Sponsorship Outreach. Possibility (not sure!) to get new MINOR sponsors. Big ones through Board! How many % of money would you get, I don't know - negotiation with Board?

DEVELOPERS - These methods of getting more money would also make game a bit more difficult. Why - arranging happenings also take training slots, Friendlies even many, so more fans and money would mean also less trained team. So, balancing!

[Abdullah Patel]

Some things you could do are sell some players for profit, become more successful so that you can get better sponsorship deals which bring more money. You can also purchase the In Game Editor to increase your budget among other things. Here's an article explaining how it can be used https://www.footballmanager.com/the-byline/using-game-editor-fm21 

[rristola]

Thanks, Abdullah Patel , for answering. But, first, I have to mock you a little bit. If you read my request carefully, you would have found, that my players are non-contract. Their values are all 0 Euros.

Or, in fact, I do have three players worth something, but they are all youth players (best one 350E), and I really wouldn't like to sell them away! And that idea using Game Editor sounds like cheating to me!

 

But, let's get serious here. I see, that the main problem here is that FM concentrates too much on top leagues. Many of us, players, want to be a manager in a top team like Liverpool or Barcelona... Then there are players like me starting from the bottom. (And, yes, I know that in England you can choose a 6. level league team.)

When FM game starts, you first create yourself a character. And you can choose there out of 5-6 different levels of 1.) player level, you used to be at, and 2.) manager/coach level you are now. If you choose bottom levels in those, like I did, you would never get a job in any of the top leagues' teams. (In real life.)(OK, just guessing!)

But, in top level leagues, if players' values are hundreds of thousands, millions or even more, then Community Outreach with selling a few shirts and stuff isn't that much!!!

 

On the other hand, I checked one team in English 6. (base game's lowest playable) level. There the max wage was less than 2000E per month, and max value under 20 000E. In those numbers one local sponsor could pay one better player's wage. And. like I requested, in those Community Outreach happenings you could be able to find such sponsors!

In my newest game the total wage budget (in English 10. level league team) is about 5000E per month. There any sum of money would make a difference! But, like now, from one friendly game you could profit even about 1000E - going to the owner. Why...???

 

So, the main question is, if I can start my game as a novice manager and choose a lower league team, shouldn't the rest of the game also be designed that way in every aspect?

 

BTW, in these pages you ask which leagues should be added so that the game would interest more players. As I see this, this game should go deeper into the lower leagues! Adjust game rules so, that managing also lower leagues' teams will be more challenging. Like I wrote earlier,

if the team does more community work to get sponsors, it takes time out of training. Playing friendlies take time also, but would give a little bit more money. Aso.

 

PS. Players, feel free to comment, especially this idea of having lower leagues more deeply. Thanks.

[santy001]

Hey @rristola how does this tie in with some of the more difficult realities of lower league football?

Most clubs don't run at a profit, or even break even. Often times they're running at a deficit and need owners to top up club finances, or rely on fund-raisers to meet some obligations. If you bring in some big money in friendlies, most of that would still be needed to offset running the club for the whole year.

While some of the suggestions do go a bit more towards what would be responsibilities of a director or owner, at lower levels there are a lot more instances where managers are respected as the only source of "football knowledge" at the club and the best way to go about things so there could possibly be extra burdens for lower level managers to take on. Are you thinking managers should be responsible for more things at this level?

Local sponsorship wouldn't necessarily amount to much, you're right that for a local business to offer up some kind of sponsorship that €2000 might not be that much. But that players wages across the year would be €24000. Suddenly that's a big chunk of money for a lot of businesses and not something they would be willing to do.

[StewartAHannah]

There are 3 financial structures, amateur, semi pro and professional. Amateurs play for fun, semi pro might get a small appearance fee when they play some might get a small valued contract but nothing much, a pro gets a proper contract/wage. You will not get many players in the lowest leagues who are full time, its their hobby and they play for the love of the game. Once you hit the conference only then does football start to get serious and even then at the lowest level, least ability or youngest age. The lowest leagues struggle to get anyone of any quality even youngsters since anyone with any potential would have been poached by one of the academies. SO you are left with the dregs or players at the end of their career also sometimes a good players who has a good job so playing for fun. They struggle with ground maintenance costs and even the cost of travelling to away games !!

For a small club to get big there is only one way, investment either consortium or rich owner. A great example is Salford FC and what its cost partners Project 92 Limited to get to the 2nd Division.  Currently standing at £2,4m of interest free loans, yes and they also want that back sometime in the future. Not even a good FA Cup run would generate anything close to that although certainly nice when it happens. They used that to pay wages for players in divisions other players in other teams played for fun. That said they don't expect to make any real profit until the Championship and they are still a long way off that dream. You have to be an experienced manager of the lower leagues to succeed its extremely challenging and sometimes fun sometimes a right pain in %$^$&^ !!

 

[rristola]

Thanks guys for commenting. (And sorry, haven't read this for a while.)       And, for your knowledge, I am not in any kind of sport business, so, I don't know how these things are in real life.

 

First, I have to say that I don't exactly remember what was my main problem (when I wrote that first one). Most likely there was an older, better, and cheap enough, player who would have agreed to sign, but I couldn't raise even that money!

Second, of course, in lower leagues amounts of money are smaller. But, when there are not that many workers in team, could the manager do something to get things any better?

So, I am only asking for ways to raise some money! And, santy001, that could be done in co-operation with the Board. Manager would find "a more interesting" team for a friendly, and Board would invite sponsors, etc. Income could be divided half (or something).

Board would use it for expenses, manager for wages or transfers. There could be some variation in how many percentages of income manager would get, and that could be agreed in manager's contract. Also, Pros and Cons, like, too many "happenings" would exhaust the volunteer workers and even the supporters ('just asking for more money...'). 

Should manager have more responsibilities - no. Pretty much like they are now. Travelling, etc. managed by secretaries aso. ONLY extra fundraising should be added. With these "happenings" (Friendly+Community Outreach) team could also try to find new sponsors (some money every month).

 

As I wrote before, I played then an English 10. level team, and yearly cost of a player wouldn't have been that much. With income from one or two friendlies I could have afforded a decent or good player (for whole year), if only I could have got suitable opponents invited.

 

One main issue (or, my problem) here is, that I haven't figured out where the income of a friendly goes, and how it affects things like budgets. Like, if there is enough money in team's account, will the Board start to complain about exceeding the wage budget?

And because I don't know what would/could happen in these things, I fear that I could be sacked doing OK financially.

 

To explain this I give one example. Sometimes player/staff contract is the only option with a staff member I want. He can be 'surplus' as a player, but if he insists... But, he can agree on lower wage than the normal wage level for a staff member is!

Game (Footbal Manager) usually can't see this. It makes the Board complain about 'too big wage for this level player', although he is also a cheap staff member! Why this happens?

 

If you have more to ask, just...