eriktous Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 One of my players is in the last six months of his contract, but there is a 2 year optional contract extension by club clause in it. He has now signed a contract with another club for the next season, and the option to activate the clause is no longer in the menu on his player profile page. Do you have to activate the clause before he signs with another club? I assumed I could do it at any time before his contract with my club ends, regardless of him negotiating a contract with a different club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_G_32201 Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 as far as i'm aware you need to do it before he agrees any deal with someone else. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cris182 Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 Costly way to find out but yes you have to activate it before he negotiates elsewhere Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eriktous Posted September 8, 2016 Author Share Posted September 8, 2016 That's a bit silly, isn't it? Does it work like that in real life? Not much lost, though. I think I only played one friendly game since the last time I saved, so I can go back easily. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zek Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 2 hours ago, eriktous said: That's a bit silly, isn't it? Does it work like that in real life? Not much lost, though. I think I only played one friendly game since the last time I saved, so I can go back easily. I think real life contracts have a certain date the club has to follow and if the club doesn't activate the clause before that date, the player is free to sign anywhere else in case his contract is ending. I may be wrong, though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eriktous Posted September 8, 2016 Author Share Posted September 8, 2016 Sounds reasonable. Would be nice if that date was visible in the contract screen. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maaka Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 I believe you can negotiate freely with a player who's got less than 6 months remaining on their contracts. If you have an option to extend, but haven't excercised that option yet, then the contract does indeed expire in a certain time. If that time is less than 6 monthes, then... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eriktous Posted September 8, 2016 Author Share Posted September 8, 2016 That's not true, I think. If no other club comes and offers him a contract, I'm pretty sure I can exercise the option even on the last day, if I wanted. So the contract doesn't expire in a certain time just because I didn't exercise the option before a set date. He has a contract with the club that runs until a certain date. Part of that contract is the option for the club to extend. There is nothing about a cut-off date before which the option has to be activated, so I feel I should be able to do it whenever I want. If the player chooses to negotiate a new deal with another club, it's at his own risk, because the option could still be lifted. Ah, well, I guess I'll just have to accept that the game is incomplete in this regard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar2010 Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 The game isn't incomplete, you are simply throwing your toys out of the pram because you didn't get what you wanted. A) You have the option to take up the contract extension if its available. B) The player has the right to talk to others clubs once he has six months left on his contract. He chose to agree terms with another club before you decided to exercise the option. If you let contracts run down like that you run the risk of the player going elsewhere. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eriktous Posted September 8, 2016 Author Share Posted September 8, 2016 33 minutes ago, Cougar2010 said: The game isn't incomplete I believe it is. 36 minutes ago, Cougar2010 said: you are simply throwing your toys out of the pram Who is throwing their toys out of their pram? 33 minutes ago, Cougar2010 said: because you didn't get what you wanted. As I already said, I have a save file I can (and did) go back to. As it happened, it were actually two friendlies instead of one I had to play again. Not much lost. 43 minutes ago, Cougar2010 said: A) You have the option to take up the contract extension if its available. It becomes unavailable once the player agrees a contract with another club, which is the point of this thread. I don't believe that is correct. The contract with his current club is still valid, so all clauses and options in it should be valid until the end. Now, of course, the information we get presented on the contract screen is only a summary of the actual contract, so in fact it's possible that the full contract has a stipulation that from a certain date the option can become invalidated by the action of signing another contract with a different club, but in that case I can maintain that the game is incomplete in its presentation of information. 44 minutes ago, Cougar2010 said: B) The player has the right to talk to others clubs once he has six months left on his contract. Sure he has, but he should take into consideration that his current contract has an extension option, so any new terms he agrees can only be provisional, because his current club can choose to exercise the option. Most importantly, I would actually still like to get an answer to the question I asked in my second post, namely "Does it work like that in real life?" Does anybody know? Zek's suggestion of a cut-off date after which the option becomes unavailable sounds reasonable. Like a couple of months before the end of the contract, so as to give the player some time to arrange something new. Can't leave them in uncertainty until the final day of their contract. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grff Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 As soon as a contract is signed elsewhere, the extension option becomes null and void, otherwise you could see situations where a player signs for another club, prepares to move on 1st July (for example) and then his current club trigger the extension the day before. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eriktous Posted September 8, 2016 Author Share Posted September 8, 2016 That's why I would expect there to be a cut-off date at least a couple of months before the end date of the contract. As it is now, if there is no interest from another club, the current club can still wait until the last day, right? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grff Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 They can wait as long as the player doesn't sign elsewhere. As soon as a player commits to a contract elsewhere the option of extending his current contract isn't possible. I always take the approach to trigger the extension as soon as I know another club has offered a contract for the player to consider. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eriktous Posted September 8, 2016 Author Share Posted September 8, 2016 Yeah, I know now that's what I'll have to do, provided I have the intention of keeping him, of course. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomba35 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 In my game I offered a contract to a player in June and he accepted it, but a few days later I got informed that the deal fell through because his club decided to exercise the one year extension clause in his contract. I think that the only option where you shouldn't be able to exercise the clause is if you inform the player that you'll release him after the season. In this case the clause should become void. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maaka Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 10 hours ago, bomba35 said: In my game I offered a contract to a player in June and he accepted it, but a few days later I got informed that the deal fell through because his club decided to exercise the one year extension clause in his contract. I think that the only option where you shouldn't be able to exercise the clause is if you inform the player that you'll release him after the season. In this case the clause should become void. He said he would accept it, but never got as far as signing it, right? Just like it is, if his contract includes an option to extend, then said option must be excercised before he signs another contract elsewhere, which he's entitled to do if he's got less than six months to go on he's existing contract. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomba35 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 10 hours ago, Maaka said: He said he would accept it, but never got as far as signing it, right? Just like it is, if his contract includes an option to extend, then said option must be excercised before he signs another contract elsewhere, which he's entitled to do if he's got less than six months to go on he's existing contract. No, he signed a contract and in transfer page it said he would join on 1st of July and then the transfer was cancelled because his club decided to exercise the one year extension clause. I bought the guy a few days later since the price was only around 20k. I also think this was correct since the previous contract was still valid. The only case where you shouldn't be able to exerxise the clause is when you set the player for release. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maaka Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 I have to disagree. If you sign a contract, then that contract should be the valid one. The rules states that if a player is in his last six months of a contract, he's free to negotiate (and thus, sign contracts) with other clubs. If the original club has an option to extend, it has to be excercised before a) it expires, and b) he signs with another club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swillo Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 Surely you got a news item saying "Team X has offered Player y a contract"? Anyway, agree with Maaka above, player was free to sign with who he wants as the contract with the option was due to expire. I always sign any players I want to keep in the December to stop them negotiating with others. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomba35 Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 4 hours ago, Maaka said: I have to disagree. If you sign a contract, then that contract should be the valid one. The rules states that if a player is in his last six months of a contract, he's free to negotiate (and thus, sign contracts) with other clubs. If the original club has an option to extend, it has to be excercised before a) it expires, and b) he signs with another club. We'll have to agree to disagree then. But I think eriktous is right that any contract such player agrees is only provisonal pending his release from the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 Not under EU law & maybe even FIFA regulations, he's free to talk to other clubs & agree terms, if his existing club want to activate a prior agreed extension they will have had plenty of time to do so & it's their fault for allowing a player to enter the free agent negotiation period. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomba35 Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 3 hours ago, Barside said: Not under EU law & maybe even FIFA regulations, he's free to talk to other clubs & agree terms, if his existing club want to activate a prior agreed extension they will have had plenty of time to do so & it's their fault for allowing a player to enter the free agent negotiation period. I just checked FIFA regulations and some other articles and studies, As far as I can see the regulations are very general, defining max length of contract (5years and 3 years for players under 18, and those contracts cannot be prolonged by such clauses. It also states that player is free to negotiate with other clubs 6 montths before contract expiry, but his club has to be notified about negotiations. So you are right and I was wrong. But it still happend in my save. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 iir there was a bug that allowed managers to activate the extension after a pre-contract elsewhere had been agreed, can;t recall if it was if it was 15 or 16 but I'm pretty sure it was fixed to remove the option if a player agreed a pre-contract Bosman. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomba35 Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 I'm playing FM16. I can't prove it because I didn't make a save since it didn't seem wrong to me. But when I looked at the problem from both sides I think that in such case player would be in a significant disadvantage towards his club and other players. And as you said, the club had enough time to activate the clause. Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted September 11, 2016 Share Posted September 11, 2016 This situation actually happened to the Vancouver Whitecaps a few years ago. They exercised an option on one of their players at the end of the season only to find a picture of him on Twitter holding a Queretaro shirt and a caption reading that he had signed for them. FIFA and CONCACAF had to step in and work out a deal where the player was "sold," meaning Queretaro ended up having to pay a transfer fee to the Whitecaps (I think in the $2 mil range?) even though they had already signed the player. So, you can activate your option anytime, even at the end of a contract. However, it does cause problems. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 11, 2016 Share Posted September 11, 2016 Reading up an that deal it appears to be very specific to MLS & their player contracts, interesting case as the validity of what MLS & Vancouver did has not been tested with FIFA or CAS. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eriktous Posted September 11, 2016 Author Share Posted September 11, 2016 Am I wrong in thinking it would all very much depend on the actual wording of the contract, and that will differ from case to case, or do clubs and players/agents across the (footballing) world all work from a single template contract, perhaps provided by FIFA? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 11, 2016 Share Posted September 11, 2016 I believe the core elements need to meet FIFA guidelines, in the UK an MLS style automatic option clause that extends the life of a contract beyond the original expiry which the player must accept & has no control over would probably be considered an unfair clause & not binding, I expect FIFA & CAS if they were ever asked to make a ruling. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted September 12, 2016 Share Posted September 12, 2016 8 hours ago, Barside said: Reading up an that deal it appears to be very specific to MLS & their player contracts, interesting case as the validity of what MLS & Vancouver did has not been tested with FIFA or CAS. Fair point. MLS contracts and how contracts are done in general in the US and Canada seem to be very different. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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