Case Study: International transfers

Over the years we have been involved in a number of domestic and international football deals. We have learnt a huge amount about the practical aspects of football transfers. That experience has enabled us to make the complicated, simple. We know what’s important, we know how to work to seemingly impossible deadlines, and we know how to keep a deal on track whilst still looking out for the client’s needs. Below are some examples of the approach we take when working with players and agents.

Moving to China

We received a call one morning to say that a player was in China, ready to sign a £15m deal with a Chinese Super League club. The player was under pressure to sign the contract that evening – and given the eight hour time difference, it was already late afternoon in China. This was the first we knew of the deal, leaving us little time to work with.

Unusually, the player had travelled alone to China, and upon arrival in Beijing was driven to a hotel many hours away by car. A couple of foreign agents met him there, neither represented him. The first thing we did was arrange for a trusted contact in Beijing to get to the hotel as quickly as possible. With no one there looking out for the player, we wanted to make sure there was someone to check that the documents the player was being given in China matched the documents we were seeing in the UK.

The contract was sent through to us in Chinese and English and was disastrous for the player.

The club had the right to dismiss the player for minor breaches, they could relegate him to the reserves and slash his salary accordingly, they could impose heavy fines for anything deemed to have a negative impact on the club’s reputation – including yellow cards! There was even a clause that the player would owe the club $25million if he breached the employment contract. Overall, it was a dangerous contract for the player to sign because there were too many ways he could be punished which were beyond his control.

We spoke to the player’s agent as well as the foreign agents to understand the strength of the player’s bargaining power. They felt there was room to make changes because the club was keen to sign the player, the transfer window was closing, and there was little time for the club to fly a replacement out to China. The main issue was timing. Everyone stood to earn a lot on the deal, so they all wanted to see it signed quickly.

Given the deadline, we managed to get the club to agree that only the English version of the contract mattered, which did away with any uncertainty over the translation. We made all the changes that were needed to protect the player and left in the more minor provisions (while flagging them to the player so he understood that he had to behave in a certain way to avoid offending cultural beliefs and breaching the contract).

We worked late into the night but managed to get the contract in the shape the player needed, and it was signed first thing in the morning, Chinese time. Our man on the ground made sure the player signed the approved version.

Things started well but went downhill for the player who was out of favour. Fortunately, the contract we had secured for him was strong enough that the club could not dismiss him, and he was in a great position to negotiate his exit.

Joining the Premier League

It’s the dream of many players to join the Premier League, and the skill of good agents to negotiate that pathway. In our experience, the better the agent the more likely they are to seek legal input from local advisors. It shows a high level of care and professionalism.

When a star of European football was potentially joining an English Premier League club we were called to assist with the negotiations. The agent was very experienced, but this was a particularly important deal and he wanted to make sure he protected the player and secured the best possible deal.

Because we were so heavily involved over a period of time, we were able to make a number of valuable suggestions which impacted the player’s contract, his image rights deal, and also the player’s ability to leave and join a bigger club.

The bigger picture

Immigration – it is one of the first things that clubs think about when they are signing a player from abroad. Will they qualify for a ‘work permit’?

However, beyond that entry criteria aspect, immigration is rarely considered by clubs or agents. In reality, it can be such an important issue in the life of a player and their family.

We had a client from Africa who was playing in the Premier League. His long term aim after retiring from football was to live in England with his wife and kids, but no one had ever advised him on how he could earn the right to stay and work in the UK in future.

This came to our attention when the player was thinking of leaving the Premier League club to move abroad. The player had been in the UK for four and a half years, meaning he was only six months short of the five years needed to qualify for ‘Indefinite Leave to Remain’ (being the right to settle in the UK). If the player left at this stage, the qualifying time would be reset to nought. Given his age, he would not have another opportunity to accrue the necessary time in the UK.

Instead of the player immediately transferring aboard, we arranged for the player to go on loan for the first six months with a permanent transfer following thereafter. This meant the player had a good legal argument that he had completed the five years in the UK because his employer remained here when he was on loan.

It was a solution that met everyone’s needs. The selling club moved on a player they no longer needed; the buying club signed an important player for their team; and, the player got the move he wanted, when he wanted, and with his long-term immigration needs looked after.