Can a player resign?

Gullflyinghigh · Mar 6, 2014

I recently found myself wondering why it is that a manager, who will be contracted for a certain amount of years, can resign from his position when players, seemingly, aren't.

I assume it has something to do with clubs actually accepting the resignation in the first place (in the case of managers) and it usually being something of a mutual arrangement, but is it even something a player would have the option to try and do (and if not, why not)?

I'm aware that if players could just walk away then all the power would sit with them, royally screwing clubs, so I very much wouldn't want it to ever be the case that they could.

Biscuit · Mar 6, 2014

It boils down to players being seen, treated and respected not like employees of a company but as valuable commodities.

e77 · Mar 6, 2014

They can stop playing but the club would own their registration for the duration of the contract.

I believe there is a mechanism where the player can buy themselves out.

Gullflyinghigh · Mar 6, 2014

Biscuit said:
It boils down to players being seen, treated and respected not like employees of a company but as valuable commodities.

Probably about right, thing is, how does that work in terms of employment law then (speaking as a layman to all things law related)?

Are there similar arrangements in other professions?

HawkTheSeagull · Mar 6, 2014

Pretty sure they can resign, but their contract needs to be paid up unless something gets mutually agreed.

The club of course can reject the resignation request though, though if you wanted to leave - you would simply hand in a transfer request instead.

Gullflyinghigh · Mar 6, 2014

HawkTheSeagull said:
Pretty sure they can resign, but their contract needs to be paid up unless something gets mutually agreed.

The club of course can reject the resignation request though, though if you wanted to leave - you would simply hand in a transfer request instead.

Can't the tranfer request also be rejected?

HawkTheSeagull · Mar 6, 2014

Gullflyinghigh said:
Can't the tranfer request also be rejected?

Yes it can, then you have a scenario of the player refusing to play.......or not playing because they arent "focused".

Gullflyinghigh · Mar 6, 2014

HawkTheSeagull said:
Yes it can, then you have a scenario of the player refusing to play.......or not playing because they arent "focused".

This is where I get confused. Surely there aren't many professions where you can't (in some way) choose to leave your current employer without them being able to stop you doing so?

fat old seagull · Mar 6, 2014

Unfortunately the player holds all the Aces. If the club won't let him go he might underperform . I think I can recall something like that happening somewhere recently

Goldstone1976 · Mar 6, 2014

Gullflyinghigh said:
Probably about right, thing is, how does that work in terms of employment law then (speaking as a layman to all things law related).

Are there similar arrangements in other professions?

Players and managers are on fixed term contracts in terms of employment law. In most fixed term contracts, both parties are obliged to perform their obligations (defined within the contract) until the end of the term of the contract. It is possible to put "break" clauses into such contracts - the break being triggered by anything that both parties agree at contract signature (e.g. Some club offering over £Xm allows the player to talk to that club - think of Arsenal offering Liverpool £40,000,001 for Suarez in the summer). If there are no break clauses, or the clause condition(s) haven't been met, then either party will be in breach of contract if they seek to terminate it before the end of the term, giving the other party the right to seek redress under civil law. Generally, redress is covered financially - hence the club would be expected to pay up the rest of the contract if they initiated the breach, or the player would have to make a similar payment to the club if he did.

Yes, there are loads of fixed term contracts in other fields - IT, Academia, consultants - the list is nearly endless.

HawkTheSeagull · Mar 6, 2014

Gullflyinghigh said:
This is where I get confused. Surely there aren't many professions where you can't (in some way) choose to leave your current employer without them being able to stop you doing so?

Its a complicated area, put it that way. The amount of money involved makes it that as clubs are paying lots of money for a player in most cases.

Its different to Dave who works in Argos who earns minimum wage, his employers havent/arent paying loads of money for him - so he will be allowed to resign when he wants, as long as he follows what it says on his contract (IE 1 week notice).

Brightonia · Mar 6, 2014

If a player is really really Unhappy at a club, whats to stop him "retiring" and then a few months later signing for another club??

Gullflyinghigh · Mar 6, 2014

Goldstone1976 said:
Players and managers are on fixed term contracts in terms of employment law. In most fixed term contracts, both parties are obliged to perform their obligations (defined within the contract) until the end of the term of the contract. It is possible to put "break" clauses into such contracts - the break being triggered by anything that both parties agree at contract signature (e.g. Some club offering over £Xm allows the player to talk to that club - think of Arsenal offering Liverpool £40,000,001 for Suarez in the summer). If there are no break clauses, or the clause condition(s) haven't been met, then either party will be in breach of contract if they seek to terminate it before the end of the term, giving the other party the right to seek redress under civil law. Generally, redress is covered financially - hence the club would be expected to pay up the rest of the contract if they initiated the breach, or the player would have to make a similar payment to the club if he did.

Yes, there are loads of fixed term contracts in other fields - IT, Academia, consultants - the list is nearly endless.

Fair enough, so that would leave the player the option to buy out their own contract then...can a club stop them from doing so?

Slightly off the main point but Liverpool recently admitted they did have that clause in Suarez's contract yet still stopped Arsenal from talking to him. How is that allowed to happen?

Cian · Mar 6, 2014

Brightonia said:
If a player is really really Unhappy at a club, whats to stop him "retiring" and then a few months later signing for another club??

If allowed to retire before their contract is up, its inevitable they'll still have a contract preventing them from playing for another club for the same period of time as their existing contract had.

pasty · Mar 6, 2014

HawkTheSeagull said:
.......or not playing because they arent "focused".

Surely that would never happen, would it.......

Gullflyinghigh · Mar 6, 2014

Cian said:
If allowed to retire before their contract is up, its inevitable they'll still have a contract preventing them from playing for another club for the same period of time as their existing contract had.

'Allowed' to retire? A club could stop that happening?

Is retiring viewed as resigning then?

Husty · Mar 6, 2014

Brightonia said:
If a player is really really Unhappy at a club, whats to stop him "retiring" and then a few months later signing for another club??

Because the player is under contract to the club?

Husty · Mar 6, 2014

Gullflyinghigh said:
'Allowed' to retire? A club could stop that happening?

Is retiring viewed as resigning then?

it's pretty simple, both parties in the contract have a list of obligations they have to fulfill and being available to play for the club for the length of the contract is probably the very first item on the list of the players obligations. They can't just retire. There is no such thing as retiring form a fixed length contract.

Cian · Mar 6, 2014

Gullflyinghigh said:
'Allowed' to retire? A club could stop that happening?

If you're in a fixed term contract you can't just decide to retire and expect your contract obligations to cease. In any job.

severnside gull · Mar 6, 2014

Bridcutt effectively resigned when he determined that his head was not in the right place to play for BHAFC.
The result in these cases is either a transfer or a stand-off. In Suarez case (and probably Rooney from what we heard) the outcome was a substantially improved deal.
Contract or not, if the player has a value in the transfer market they effectively hold all the cards.

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