The Football Agent System

Garcia sent it across with a short list of independent sports solicitors, none of them tied to G11, and one line at the bottom.

Pick one off this list or find your own. The Go Ahead proposal won’t vanish because you took a few days to understand what you’re signing. Take them.

Jay picked a solicitor off the list — a woman in Manchester with no connection to Garcia — and she earned her fee.

She rang Garcia herself once she’d been through it.

"Mr Garcia. I’ve got your representation agreement in front of me." Her tone was crisp, unbothered. "Most of it’s clean. Fairer than a lot of what crosses my desk, I’ll give you that."

"But."

"But clause six-point-four. The fee on a deal completed after termination." She read a line of it back to him. "I want it tighter. If my client ever leaves you and another agent finishes a contract, I don’t want you claiming a slice of it unless you’d already agreed the material terms before you left. As drafted, there’s a sliver of daylight there. I want it shut."

Garcia looked at her proposed wording on the screen.

"Send me exactly how you’d word it," he said.

"You’re not going to fight me on it?"

"No. Yours is cleaner than mine." He meant it. "A lawyer poking holes in this makes it stronger. If I bristled at that you should tell your client to walk."

She almost laughed. "That’s not the usual answer."

He put her wording in. Jay signed electronically from Norway, after confirming in writing that he’d taken independent advice. Garcia countersigned for G11 and uploaded the agreement to the agent system.

[SIDE MISSION COMPLETED]

Mission: Sign Jay Cole Into G11

Objective Complete: Jayden "Jay" Cole has entered into a valid representation agreement with G11 Sports Management Ltd.

Rewards: — Skill Points +500 — Contract Knowledge SP +100 — Client Management SP +100 — Reputation +5

[AGENCY STATUS UPDATED]

Represented Players: 1 → 2

A second panel opened under it, and Garcia let himself look at that one a beat longer.

[CLIENT PROFILE UNLOCKED]

Name: Jayden "Jay" Cole

Age: 21

Position: Left Winger

Agency: G11 Sports Management Ltd

Current Status: Free Agent

Current Evaluation: Egersunds IK

Competing Interest: Go Ahead Eagles

Contract Support: Available

Development Monitoring: Available

Two names on the register now. He didn’t celebrate it.

He reopened Go Ahead’s draft, and this time he had every right to read it.

Contract Red Flag activated the moment Jay’s profile registered him as a client.

[CONTRACT RED FLAG — E]

Clause 2.1: "Professional development structure"

Risk: The wording does not identify whether the Player belongs to the first team, reserve team or development squad.

Clause 5.2: Unilateral club extension option.

Risk: No exercise deadline or salary increase is stated.

Clause 7.4: The Club may temporarily transfer the Player at its discretion.

Risk: The Player may be loaned immediately without consultation.

Clause 10.1: The Agreement may terminate if registration is delayed.

Risk: No distinction is made between delay caused by the Player and delay caused by Club administration.

Accuracy Limitation: E-rank review does not replace qualified legal advice.

Four flags. Garcia wrote each one onto its own line, put a question beside it, and had Bram set up the call.

Peter Doevendans led it, the club’s football administrator beside him, a legal representative in the corner of the frame who said little and wrote everything.

Garcia went to the first flag straight away.

"Clause two-point-one. ’Professional development structure.’" He let the phrase hang. "That could mean anything. First team, reserves, an under-nineteen programme. Which is it? What are you actually signing him into?"

"First-team squad," Peter said. "I’ll be plain about the ceiling on that, though. No guaranteed starts. No promised minutes. No protected place in a matchday eighteen."

"But a first-team player."

"A first-team player. Training with the first team. Not a body filed into a development tier and forgotten."

"Then say so in the contract," Garcia said. "Word for word."

Peter glanced at the legal man, who nodded.

PLAYER STATUS

2.1 The Player shall be engaged as a member of the Club’s first-team squad and shall train primarily with the first team.

2.2 The Club may assign the Player to reserve-team fixtures or individual development work where reasonably required for fitness, match exposure or rehabilitation.

2.3 Nothing in this Agreement guarantees:

(a) match selection; (b) playing time; (c) a starting position; (d) inclusion in a competition squad; or (e) continued first-team selection.

"Next," Garcia said. "Are you employing him now, or securing him now for January? The draft blurs it."

"Both, in order," Peter said. "Medical and signing can happen in October. The employment itself begins on the first of January. Registration goes in during the Dutch winter window, once work authorisation and international clearance are through behind it."

"So he signs now, starts later, and can’t play a competitive Dutch match until every process behind it clears."

"Correct."

"I want that on the page. Not implied. Stated."

EXECUTION AND COMMENCEMENT

3.1 This Agreement shall become binding upon:

(a) signature by the Player and the Club; and (b) satisfactory completion of the Club’s medical examination.

3.2 The Player’s employment shall commence on 1 January 2076.

3.3 The Player shall report to the Club on the date stated in the Club’s written reporting notice.

3.4 The Club shall begin all reasonable work-authorisation and international-registration preparations before the Commencement Date.

"Then the one that actually worries me," Garcia said. "Clause ten. You can terminate whenever registration’s delayed. Full stop. No distinction as to whose fault the delay is."

"All foreign contracts stay subject to registration, Mr Garcia," the administrator put in. "That’s simply true. We can’t change that."

"I’m not asking you to. I’ll accept the condition." Garcia leaned in. "What I won’t accept is this. Jay hands over every document. Attends every appointment. Reports on time. And then the hold-up comes from your paperwork, not his. Under this wording, he’s out of a job and out of pay for a filing error he didn’t cause."

The administrator opened his mouth, then closed it.

"So here’s the line I need," Garcia said. "If the delay isn’t his fault, his salary runs from the commencement date regardless. You can’t sit on your own late filing and use it to stop paying him."

Peter looked at his legal man, who was already writing.

"That’s reasonable," Peter said.

CONDITIONS AND REGISTRATION

10.1 This Agreement is conditional upon:

(a) satisfactory medical clearance; (b) the grant of the necessary work and residence authorisation; and (c) the Player’s lawful international registration.

10.2 The Player shall provide all documents and attend all appointments reasonably required for those processes.

10.3 Where registration is delayed after the Commencement Date for reasons not attributable to the Player, the Player’s fixed salary shall remain payable from the Commencement Date.

10.4 Where work authorisation is finally refused despite both parties complying fully with the application process, either party may terminate the Agreement without further sporting obligation.

10.5 The Club may not rely upon its own late, incomplete or defective filing to withhold salary or terminate this Agreement.

"The immigration side," Garcia said. "He’s British. Outside your free-movement rules. Is the route actually open, or are we wasting each other’s time?"

"It’s open," the legal man said, speaking for the first time. "The pathway for a young foreign signing to a top-flight club. January’s the target window. We’ve mapped it."

"Good enough." Garcia moved on. He wasn’t there to argue immigration law with people who did it for a living.

"The extension option next," he said. "As drafted, you can trigger it late and keep him on the same money. I want a deadline and I want a rise."

"We can agree both," Peter said.

CLUB OPTION

5.1 The guaranteed employment term shall run from 1 January 2076 until 30 June 2078.

5.2 The Club may extend the Agreement until 30 June 2079 by giving written notice no later than 1 April 2078.

5.3 If the option is exercised, the Player’s fixed gross salary shall increase by twenty percent for the option season.

5.4 If written notice is not given by the stated deadline, the option shall expire automatically.

"Last flag. The loan clause." Garcia didn’t dress it up. "As it stands you can ship him anywhere, any time, no consultation. So I’ll ask you straight. Do you intend to sign him in January and loan him out before you’ve even looked at him properly?"