Player With Auto Extension Signs Pre-Contract Elsewhere

[FreddyGuarin]

This has probably been covered elsewhere but a quick search has proved fruitless as the search words are pretty generic.

I've got a situation where one of my best defenders has a clause in his contract where he gets an automatic one-year extension if he plays 10 games and we avoid relegation. Given that we're second in League One in January, we're obviously not going down, and he has already played well over 10 matches, so this obviously will (or should be) applicable. I would've offered him a new contract early in the season had he not had this clause, but because the extension was there, I didn't see much point.

However, in early January, he agreed a pre-contract with a club from Nigeria. Now, in real life, FIFA and CAS (if it got that far) would clearly rule in favour of his current contract with his current club, but this is FM we're talking about here so I have no idea what will happen.

So will the extension get automatically triggered when survival is mathematically confirmed and the pre-contract with the other club annulled, or am I going to lose him?

And this is before taking into account the sheer unrealism of a good League One player signing for a Nigerian club at 24 years of age, and a Nigerian club being prepared to offer a defender with no international caps and very modest career up to now a weekly wage of £5.75k. Such a scenario in real life is unprecedented.

[Etebaer]

The clause should prevail afair - i had that once and the clause triggered.

Though in the end that was in an older FM version...also the games need probably to be league games only as cup games do not necessarily count.

[FreddyGuarin]

6 hours ago, Etebaer said:

The clause should prevail afair - i had that once and the clause triggered.

Though in the end that was in an older FM version...also the games need probably to be league games only as cup games do not necessarily count.

They do indeed need to be league games, but that isn't an issue. I've already played 27 league games and he has featured in 20, so he's well past the threshold.

Fingers crossed the clause does trigger, because if it doesn't, then it's either a bug or a massive oversight on SI's part.

[kingjericho]

Is it a bug though? It's a clause that takes effect near the end of the season,  but the player has Bosman rights before/if the clause activates. 

[Lord Rowell]

9 hours ago, FreddyGuarin said:

I've got a situation where one of my best defenders has a clause in his contract where he gets an automatic one-year extension if he plays 10 games and we avoid relegation. Given that we're second in League One in January, we're obviously not going down, and he has already played well over 10 matches, so this obviously will (or should be) applicable. I would've offered him a new contract early in the season had he not had this clause, but because the extension was there, I didn't see much point.

However, in early January, he agreed a pre-contract with a club from Nigeria. Now, in real life, FIFA and CAS (if it got that far) would clearly rule in favour of his current contract with his current club, but this is FM we're talking about here so I have no idea what will happen.

I think that "he gets" is optional and his to refuse, its a contractual obligation on the clubs part, not his.

So its his right to say no and I doubt it would even go to CAS.

Bad luck, its not FM its reality. At the end of the day he's an employee with contractual rights on his part as well.

[FreddyGuarin]

51 minutes ago, Lord Rowell said:

I think that "he gets" is optional and his to refuse, its a contractual obligation on the clubs part, not his.

So its his right to say no and I doubt it would even go to CAS.

Bad luck, its not FM its reality. At the end of the day he's an employee with contractual rights on his part as well.

That's simply not true, it's an automatic extension, not an option on the player's part.

Or at least that's how it works in real life, and I've never seen it function differently in FM.

[Nacaw]

Extensions like that are not trigged anymore once the player has signed elsewhere, the player in question will leave you. Always re-sign players like that if you want to keep them instead of relying on the extension to kick in.

 

Not sure how it's handled IRL, but I strongly expect unfulfilled old clauses will be voided once a new contract is signed.

[scotty-corkcityfc]

There was a case of this at our club a few years ago (Kieran Sadlier who signed for Doncaster from Cork City in 2018 for free). Optional extensions are not worth the paper its written on, its the same for match clauses. A contract is a contract end of the day and options are not binding as players are free to move at the end.

[DominicForza]

On 28/02/2023 at 07:52, FreddyGuarin said:

This has probably been covered elsewhere but a quick search has proved fruitless as the search words are pretty generic.

I've got a situation where one of my best defenders has a clause in his contract where he gets an automatic one-year extension if he plays 10 games and we avoid relegation. Given that we're second in League One in January, we're obviously not going down, and he has already played well over 10 matches, so this obviously will (or should be) applicable. I would've offered him a new contract early in the season had he not had this clause, but because the extension was there, I didn't see much point.

However, in early January, he agreed a pre-contract with a club from Nigeria. Now, in real life, FIFA and CAS (if it got that far) would clearly rule in favour of his current contract with his current club, but this is FM we're talking about here so I have no idea what will happen.

So will the extension get automatically triggered when survival is mathematically confirmed and the pre-contract with the other club annulled, or am I going to lose him?

And this is before taking into account the sheer unrealism of a good League One player signing for a Nigerian club at 24 years of age, and a Nigerian club being prepared to offer a defender with no international caps and very modest career up to now a weekly wage of £5.75k. Such a scenario in real life is unprecedented.

Please update us on what happens.  I'm curious about this myself.  Thanks

[FreddyGuarin]

On 01/03/2023 at 13:58, Nacaw said:

 Always re-sign players like that if you want to keep them instead of relying on the extension to kick in.

Yep, definitely learnt that the hard way! I've got one foot in the Championship now so I'd be looking to upgrade him anyway, although he would've been a useful backup.

 

On 01/03/2023 at 15:54, scotty-corkcityfc said:

There was a case of this at our club a few years ago (Kieran Sadlier who signed for Doncaster from Cork City in 2018 for free). Optional extensions are not worth the paper its written on, its the same for match clauses. A contract is a contract end of the day and options are not binding as players are free to move at the end.

On FM, I've made offers for players who had their contracts expiring, but as soon as I made the offer, their parent club triggered the extension so my offer became effectively null and void. Had this been an optional extension, I would've done the same.

However, this wasn't an option, it was an automatic extension based on appearances and survival. If he's able to sign a pre-contract elsewhere before the extension is applied, which makes the automatic  extension redundant, maybe this needs to be rephrased.

 

On 01/03/2023 at 17:32, DominicForza said:

Please update us on what happens.  I'm curious about this myself.  Thanks

Will do. I'm now mathematically safe and the player has made 25 appearances, but I think these are only applied well after the season finishes anyway, around June if I'm not mistaken. I'm expecting him to leave though, based on the previous replies.

[FreddyGuarin]

On 01/03/2023 at 17:32, DominicForza said:

Please update us on what happens.  I'm curious about this myself.  Thanks

Apologies for the late reply, but I lost him. Ultimately I wasn't too bothered as I got promoted and would've signed an upgrade anyway, but it's the principle.

There's a split opinion on this thread, but I maintain that this is something that would see FIFA/CAS rule in the club's favour and should either be treated as a bug or amended in future editions.

[by1 ajig]

On 25/03/2023 at 04:32, FreddyGuarin said:

Apologies for the late reply, but I lost him. Ultimately I wasn't too bothered as I got promoted and would've signed an upgrade anyway, but it's the principle.

There's a split opinion on this thread, but I maintain that this is something that would see FIFA/CAS rule in the club's favour and should either be treated as a bug or amended in future editions.

i have the same issue, eriksen in my sunderland save have contract extension after league apperance, and then the clause doesnt triggered, benfica offer him in january.

[Lord Rowell]

On 28/02/2023 at 22:59, FreddyGuarin said:

That's simply not true, it's an automatic extension, not an option on the player's part.

Or at least that's how it works in real life, and I've never seen it function differently in FM.

OK so now we've established its an automatic extension.
However, it doesn't legally take effect until the terms of the extension have been met and until that happens its null and void - meanwhile the player concerned is entitled to explore other options.

Condition Y (contract extension) only happens if before Condition X (player has right to agree terms with another club)

If that isn't the case then player's right to negotiate with other suitors (Condition X) has been breached - and that part comes FIRST.
No issue here, nothing for CAS etc. I think it is real life.

 

[Lord Rowell]

On 20/06/2023 at 21:16, by1 ajig said:

i have the same issue, eriksen in my sunderland save have contract extension after league apperance, and then the clause doesnt triggered, benfica offer him in january.

Sympathies as a Sunderland supporter myself but as I replied to the OP ages back and recently, the clause wasn't triggered in time.