12 Jul 2015 16:41:28
Can someone please explain to me what 'first option' means in relation to football. It's always banded about but how much of an advantage does it give you ahead of other clubs who want to buy the player?

1.) 12 Jul 2015
12 Jul 2015 16:59:32
Think it depends on the actual contract itself but usually my understanding was that you could either have a set buy back clause like barca and arsenal had with fabregas and a few others. Then there are some other ones like what bayern had with can if I'm not mistaken that they would have been informed Liverpool had an accepted offer and presumably they would have been given the option to match said offer.

I could be wrong on the exact details with the examples but I'm fairly sure that these are two cases that exist in football anyway.

2.) 12 Jul 2015
12 Jul 2015 17:00:53
If a team has or is about to offer a player you have first refusal on, the owning club will alert you to the situation and allow you to negotiate with they player before any other team does. Or at least I think this is what it means

3.) 12 Jul 2015
12 Jul 2015 17:41:10
Or in some cases, it's where an agent approaches a club and negotiates a first option clause for a few bob in their a**e pocket.

4.) 12 Jul 2015
12 Jul 2015 17:41:51
It's all a bit nebulous as a player can't be forced to do anything.

5.) 12 Jul 2015
12 Jul 2015 17:57:42
1) Hypothetically say Bayern have first option on Can at Liverpool. If Liverpool accept an offer for him from another club, say Real Madrid, they alert Bayern to the details of the offer that was accepted including the fee, payment structure, incentives and all that? And then Bayern can either decide whether or not they want to match those terms? But if another club, say Barcelona, want to buy Can, we don't have to let them know what offer we accepted. But surely if we set a valuation on a player it should the same for any club that might be bidding for him so the first option won't make a difference. Also won't agents involved know what offer was accepted and just let the Barca know what bid is necessary?

2) If it allows you to negotiate directly with the player before other clubs, agents can still speak to other clubs on behalf of the player and vice versa. If he sits down with your club, but wants to hear other offers before making a final decision are you at a significant advantage?

3) There must be something else if some clubs are paying millions for first option on certain players.

6.) 12 Jul 2015
12 Jul 2015 18:05:38
That's a term used by the fans in this site to convince themselves over a player when you need him back. 😄