The modern day footballer and the mysterious contract clause by Gregg Halsey
I hope you have all had a chuckle at the title for this article of mine, but to be quite frank every time I hear of yet another player with yet another clause in their contract I begin to think we are in a make believe world like a James Bond movie of something of that nature.
Who is to blame for all this though?
Well let’s see where it begins shall we and of course we will end up at a man known as Jean-Marc Bosman the gentleman who took his club to court over the way footballing transfers were done.
Of course we all know how his court case ended hence the ‘Bosman’ ruling allowing players in the European Union to move freely to another club once their contract with their present club has expired.
I have no arguments against players who have clauses in their contracts as long as they’re within reason, for example –
* Relegation release clause – allowing a player to leave on a free transfer or for a set price agreed with the present club, if the team was relegated from the division they’re in.
* The non promotion release clause – allowing a player to move for a set price agreed with the present club if that club fails to gain promotion to the league above.
* Promotion pay rise – a player could have a pay increase by 10-25% per week if they help guide their team up to the next level (which isn’t an unfair ask is it ? I’d expect an increase if I was doing a great job)
* The relegation decrease – this is one a club would usually request and I feel this is a fair ask especially in today’s financial crises.
So then what about the ‘Buy out’ clause, and how do these clauses become so well known throughout football?
Players with buy out clauses are quite common these days especially at clubs where they know they can do better (or bigger) such as Marouane Fallaini (£22mil) of Everton but even such players as Fabregas, Ronaldo, and Messi apparently have buy out clauses, all well over 200 million pounds!!!!
A recent transfer from Newcastle to Chelsea was Demba Ba (£7mil) due to his buy out clause to which a few Geordies could well think to themselves “we got robbed like!” as he was (is) a goal machine.
I also read rumours of another player that has joined a ‘mid table’ club in the Summer who allegedly has a similar low priced buy out; West Ham’s Mohamed Diame (£3.5mil) who is also reportedly writing to FIFA about his clause as West Ham don’t wish to allow a transfer to go through and are instead trying to up the clause to £9mil.
Who comes up with these ideas?
Why do these players feel they can hold a club to the terms (as well as the wages) they demand?
Does Theo Walcott have a clause where Arsenal has to play him as a striker or did that get ignored in the end?
Where will it end?
Do players not just play for loyalty and the enjoyment of playing football anymore?
I go to work to support my family, I just about make ends meet every month but I don’t demand a higher wage or demand I only work in a certain role within my place of work!
Where do you stand with it all?
Thanks for the read hope you enjoyed my ramblings.