This week sees changes in the amount you will need to pay to a player when you purchase them from the out of contracts list. Players bought from this list will now automatically be placed on long (60 week) contracts, and not be allowed to leave the club for half a season (11 turns).
For players rated 82 or above, there will also be a change in the signing on fee paid when the player is purchased. This money goes straight into the pocket of the player, but for such quality international players, agents are now demanding their cut too. Before today, all players when bought from the out of contracts list received a signing on fee of 10% of the players value (so if the player is worth £15 million, the player would have received £1.5m on signing). Now that level will be increased for players rated 82 to 90 in what we hope is a reasonably easy to understand way.
An 82 will receive a signing on fee of 20% of his value
An 83 will receive 30%
An 84 will receive 40%
An 85 will receive 50%
An 86 will receive 60%
An 87 will receive 70%
An 88 will receive 80%
An 89 or above will receive 90%
Note that these signing on fees are initial ones for players bought on the out of contracts list only, the signing on fees paid to players when they agree contract extensions with the club remain the same.
Why is it necessary?
Following on from a recent chat night - and some big tables of calculations - it has become clear that managers could make a quick killing by signing up players on astronomical wages, then selling them on just a few turns later. This would only pay off on the higher rated players (worth at least £15 - £20m for it to be in any way worthwhile), but still it was distorting the system given that some managers were unwilling to pay this money. Whilst being clear that nobody who took advantage of this was doing anything wrong - the system was there to be used and the players were available for all to bid for - it was decided that a change was required. And this is it. It also seems only fair that those managers who have bought the very players in this way - paying over half a million pounds a week - recently also have those players contracts and weeks extended to these levels (though they will not incur any additional signing on fees). They bought those players - the players were happy to join them - and the players now wish to stay at the club on those wages for the full period...