Free agent
Encyclopedia
In professional sports
, a free agent is a player whose contract
with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise.
The term came into wide use after sports league
s stopped using a "reserve clause
", which provided a repetitive option for the club to renew the contract for one or more years but did not allow the player to terminate it. In the European Union
, the 1995 Bosman ruling
by the European Court of Justice
established this right for association football players in all EU member nations. The Bosman ruling has since been extended to cover other professional sports and players from Eastern Europe. Players were still tied to their clubs unless their contract ran out until the Webster ruling
allowed players the opportunity to move between nations, though it does not free footballers to move within the national league in which they currently play.
Unrestricted free agents are players without a team. They have either been released from their club, had the term of their contract expire without a renewal, or were not chosen in a league's draft
of amateur players. These players, generally speaking, are free to entertain offers from all other teams and to decide with whom to sign a new contract.
Restricted free agent
The specific rules of restricted free agency vary among the major professional sports, but in principle it means that a player is free to solicit offers from other teams for new contracts. However, before this player is allowed to sign with the new club, the current club has a chance to match (or come within 10% in some leagues) the terms of the new contract in which case the player must remain with the original team. In some leagues, if the original team decides not to match the other team's offer for the restricted free agent, the new team provides some number of draft
selections to the original team as compensation for losing the player.
Undrafted free agent
Players who are not drafted in a league's annual draft of amateur players are considered to be unrestricted free agents and are free to sign contracts with any team.
Free agents do not have to be signed during the normal transfer window
that is implemented in some countries' leagues. If they are signed by a team, the team signing them does not have to pay any fees - sometimes this is known as "snapped up on a free transfer".
If a player gets released from their club when the transfer window is closed, they cannot sign for another team until the window reopens. A notable case of this being Sol Campbell
who in September 2009 was released from Notts County
, just after a month from signing on a free transfer. He signed for his former club Arsenal
in January 2010, after spending a few months training with the team to maintain his fitness.
Restricted free agent
s (RFAs) are players who have three or more accrued seasons of service and whose contracts have expired. RFAs have received qualifying offers from their old clubs and are free to negotiate with any club until a deadline which occurs approximately a week prior to the NFL Draft
(for the deadline was April 15), at which time their rights revert to their original club. If a player accepts an offer from a new club, the old club will have the right to match the offer and retain the player. If the old club elects not to match the offer, it may receive draft-choice compensation depending on the level of the qualifying offer made to the player.
Unrestricted free agents
Unrestricted free agents are players who have completed four or more accrued seasons of service and whose contracts have expired. They are free to sign with any franchise.
Undrafted free agents
Undrafted free agents are players eligible for the NFL Draft
but who are not selected; they can negotiate and sign with any team.
"Plan B" free agency
Plan B free agency
was a type of free agency that became active in the National Football League in February 1989. Plan B free agency permitted all teams in the NFL to preserve limited rights of no more than 37 total players a season. If a player was a protected Plan B free agent, he was incapable of signing with another team without providing his old team the first opportunity to sign him again. The rest of the players were left unprotected, liberated to negotiate contracts with the rest of the teams in the league.
Eight players sued the NFL in U.S. federal court, stating that Plan B was an unlawful restraint of trade. In 1992, a jury found that Plan B violated antitrust laws and awarded damages to the players.
, free agents are currently classified as either Type A, Type B, or unclassified. Type A free agents are those determined by the Elias Sports Bureau
to be in the top 20% of all players based on the previous two seasons. Type B free agents are those in the next 20%. Unclassified free agents are those remaining in the bottom 60% of players.
Teams that lose a Type A free agent, to whom they have offered arbitration, receive the top draft pick from the team that signs the free agent, plus a supplemental draft pick in the upcoming draft as compensation. Teams losing Type B free agents, to whom they have offered arbitration, receive only a supplemental pick as compensation.
Teams that lose unclassified free agents, or who do not offer arbitration to classified free agents, do not receive any compensation.
The next collective bargaining agreement between MLB and its players union
, signed on November 22, 2011 and taking effect with the 2012 season, will dramatically change free agent compensation. Players will no longer be classified by type. Instead, a team will only be able to receive draft pick compensation if it makes its former player an offer at least equal to the average of the 125 richest contracts. However, if a player is traded during the final season of his contract, his new team will be ineligible to receive any draft pick compensation.
, between 2005 and 2008, the age of unrestricted free agency declined from 31 to 27. As of 2008, any player who is at least 27 years old or has at least seven years of service as an NHL player, and whose contract has expired, can declare himself an unrestricted free agent. On July 1 of each year the free agency period begins, and unrestricted free agents are free to negotiate and sign contracts with any team. Under the old collective agreement, which expired in 2005, draft picks were awarded as compensation when a team lost an unrestricted free agent; however, under the current CBA
teams losing unrestricted free agents do not receive any compensation.
and the National Basketball Association
have imposed salary cap
rules in order to avert such bidding wars.
In Europe, the wages of the top players have increased dramatically since the Bosman ruling
, although this is partly because of increased television revenues. Some club chairmen have called for a payroll cap in a bid to control player wages, but this would almost certainly be ruled anti-competitive and therefore illegal under EU law. As in North America, the number of transfers involving a fee are on the decline since clubs can wait for players to finish their contracts and become unrestricted. Also in Major League Baseball the larger and more successful teams often trump the lesser income teams from lack of a salary cap.
, restricted free agents who do not sign contracts by December 1 of a given year will be ineligible to play in the National Hockey League
for the balance of that season. However, other leagues (such as the National Basketball Association) have no such restrictions.
In Europe, players can only move during transfer window
s—during the close season and half-way through the league season. There are exceptions for unsigned professional players in the lower divisions.
Professional sports
Professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, are sports in which athletes receive payment for their performance. Professional athleticism has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations...
, a free agent is a player whose contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise.
The term came into wide use after sports league
Sports league
League is a term commonly used to describe a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an...
s stopped using a "reserve clause
Reserve clause
The reserve clause is a term formerly employed in North American professional sports contracts. The reserve clause, contained in all standard player contracts, stated that, upon the contract's expiration the rights to the player were to be retained by the team to which he had been signed...
", which provided a repetitive option for the club to renew the contract for one or more years but did not allow the player to terminate it. In the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, the 1995 Bosman ruling
Bosman ruling
Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman is a 1995 European Court of Justice decision concerning freedom of movement for workers, freedom of association, and direct effect of article 39 of the EC Treaty...
by the European Court of Justice
European Court of Justice
The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...
established this right for association football players in all EU member nations. The Bosman ruling has since been extended to cover other professional sports and players from Eastern Europe. Players were still tied to their clubs unless their contract ran out until the Webster ruling
Webster ruling
The Webster ruling is a test case in association football law involving Andy Webster, a defender formerly with Heart of Midlothian football club in Edinburgh, Scotland...
allowed players the opportunity to move between nations, though it does not free footballers to move within the national league in which they currently play.
Types
Unrestricted free agentUnrestricted free agents are players without a team. They have either been released from their club, had the term of their contract expire without a renewal, or were not chosen in a league's draft
Draft (sports)
A draft is a process used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Russia and the Philippines to allocate certain players to sports teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players...
of amateur players. These players, generally speaking, are free to entertain offers from all other teams and to decide with whom to sign a new contract.
Restricted free agent
The specific rules of restricted free agency vary among the major professional sports, but in principle it means that a player is free to solicit offers from other teams for new contracts. However, before this player is allowed to sign with the new club, the current club has a chance to match (or come within 10% in some leagues) the terms of the new contract in which case the player must remain with the original team. In some leagues, if the original team decides not to match the other team's offer for the restricted free agent, the new team provides some number of draft
Draft (sports)
A draft is a process used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Russia and the Philippines to allocate certain players to sports teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players...
selections to the original team as compensation for losing the player.
Undrafted free agent
Players who are not drafted in a league's annual draft of amateur players are considered to be unrestricted free agents and are free to sign contracts with any team.
Association football
In professional association football, a free agent is a player that has been released by a professional association football club and now is no longer affiliated with any club, but has not finished his or her professional career.Free agents do not have to be signed during the normal transfer window
Transfer window
The transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other countries into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA...
that is implemented in some countries' leagues. If they are signed by a team, the team signing them does not have to pay any fees - sometimes this is known as "snapped up on a free transfer".
If a player gets released from their club when the transfer window is closed, they cannot sign for another team until the window reopens. A notable case of this being Sol Campbell
Sol Campbell
Sulzeer Jeremiah "Sol" Campbell is an English footballer who is currently a free agent. A central defender, Campbell has played for Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Portsmouth, Notts County and Newcastle United, as well as the English national team.Born in East London to Jamaican parents, Campbell's...
who in September 2009 was released from Notts County
Notts County F.C.
Notts County Football Club are an English professional football club based in Nottingham. They are the oldest of all the clubs in the world that are now professional, having been formed in 1862. They currently play in League One of The Football League, the third tier of the English football system...
, just after a month from signing on a free transfer. He signed for his former club Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
in January 2010, after spending a few months training with the team to maintain his fitness.
National Football League usage
Restricted free agentsRestricted free agent
Restricted free agent
A restricted free agent is a professional athlete who plays in the KHL, NFL, NHL, or NBA. Such players have special restrictions on the terms under which they can retain or change employment status with their athletic club teams.- NFL :...
s (RFAs) are players who have three or more accrued seasons of service and whose contracts have expired. RFAs have received qualifying offers from their old clubs and are free to negotiate with any club until a deadline which occurs approximately a week prior to the NFL Draft
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
(for the deadline was April 15), at which time their rights revert to their original club. If a player accepts an offer from a new club, the old club will have the right to match the offer and retain the player. If the old club elects not to match the offer, it may receive draft-choice compensation depending on the level of the qualifying offer made to the player.
Unrestricted free agents
Unrestricted free agents are players who have completed four or more accrued seasons of service and whose contracts have expired. They are free to sign with any franchise.
Undrafted free agents
Undrafted free agents are players eligible for the NFL Draft
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
but who are not selected; they can negotiate and sign with any team.
"Plan B" free agency
Plan B free agency
Plan B free agency
The Plan B free agency was a type of free agency that became active in the National Football League in February 1989. Plan B free agency permitted all teams in the NFL to preserve limited rights of no more than 37 total players a season...
was a type of free agency that became active in the National Football League in February 1989. Plan B free agency permitted all teams in the NFL to preserve limited rights of no more than 37 total players a season. If a player was a protected Plan B free agent, he was incapable of signing with another team without providing his old team the first opportunity to sign him again. The rest of the players were left unprotected, liberated to negotiate contracts with the rest of the teams in the league.
Eight players sued the NFL in U.S. federal court, stating that Plan B was an unlawful restraint of trade. In 1992, a jury found that Plan B violated antitrust laws and awarded damages to the players.
Major League Baseball usage
In Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
, free agents are currently classified as either Type A, Type B, or unclassified. Type A free agents are those determined by the Elias Sports Bureau
Elias Sports Bureau
The Elias Sports Bureau is an American company that provides historical research and statistical services in the field of professional sports.In 1913, Al Munro Elias and his brother Walter established the Al Munro Elias Bureau in New York City...
to be in the top 20% of all players based on the previous two seasons. Type B free agents are those in the next 20%. Unclassified free agents are those remaining in the bottom 60% of players.
Teams that lose a Type A free agent, to whom they have offered arbitration, receive the top draft pick from the team that signs the free agent, plus a supplemental draft pick in the upcoming draft as compensation. Teams losing Type B free agents, to whom they have offered arbitration, receive only a supplemental pick as compensation.
Teams that lose unclassified free agents, or who do not offer arbitration to classified free agents, do not receive any compensation.
The next collective bargaining agreement between MLB and its players union
Major League Baseball Players Association
The Major League Baseball Players Association is the union of professional major-league baseball players.-History of MLBPA:The MLBPA was not the first attempt to unionize baseball players...
, signed on November 22, 2011 and taking effect with the 2012 season, will dramatically change free agent compensation. Players will no longer be classified by type. Instead, a team will only be able to receive draft pick compensation if it makes its former player an offer at least equal to the average of the 125 richest contracts. However, if a player is traded during the final season of his contract, his new team will be ineligible to receive any draft pick compensation.
National Hockey League usage
In the NHLNational Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
, between 2005 and 2008, the age of unrestricted free agency declined from 31 to 27. As of 2008, any player who is at least 27 years old or has at least seven years of service as an NHL player, and whose contract has expired, can declare himself an unrestricted free agent. On July 1 of each year the free agency period begins, and unrestricted free agents are free to negotiate and sign contracts with any team. Under the old collective agreement, which expired in 2005, draft picks were awarded as compensation when a team lost an unrestricted free agent; however, under the current CBA
NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement
The NHL collective bargaining agreement is the basic contract between the National Hockey League team owners and the NHL Players Association , designed to be arrived at through the typical labor-management negotiations of collective bargaining...
teams losing unrestricted free agents do not receive any compensation.
Drawbacks for owners
The economics of free agency are disadvantageous for team owners; it can lead to bidding wars—and increased player salaries mean decreased owner profits. Restrictions on free agency have therefore been preferred by North American team owners since the abolition of the reserve clause. For example, a draft can be used to keep young and talented players from generating bidding wars and causing higher player salaries throughout the league. Furthermore, some teams which play in large market cities, and hence have a larger revenue stream, would be able to outbid other teams for talented players. Some leagues, such as the National Football LeagueNational Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
and the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
have imposed salary cap
Salary cap
In professional sports, a salary cap is a cartel agreement between teams that places a limit on the amount of money that can be spent on player salaries. The limit exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both...
rules in order to avert such bidding wars.
In Europe, the wages of the top players have increased dramatically since the Bosman ruling
Bosman ruling
Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman is a 1995 European Court of Justice decision concerning freedom of movement for workers, freedom of association, and direct effect of article 39 of the EC Treaty...
, although this is partly because of increased television revenues. Some club chairmen have called for a payroll cap in a bid to control player wages, but this would almost certainly be ruled anti-competitive and therefore illegal under EU law. As in North America, the number of transfers involving a fee are on the decline since clubs can wait for players to finish their contracts and become unrestricted. Also in Major League Baseball the larger and more successful teams often trump the lesser income teams from lack of a salary cap.
Deadlines
In some leagues, free agency has deadlines. For example, under the current NHL Collective Bargaining AgreementNHL Collective Bargaining Agreement
The NHL collective bargaining agreement is the basic contract between the National Hockey League team owners and the NHL Players Association , designed to be arrived at through the typical labor-management negotiations of collective bargaining...
, restricted free agents who do not sign contracts by December 1 of a given year will be ineligible to play in the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
for the balance of that season. However, other leagues (such as the National Basketball Association) have no such restrictions.
In Europe, players can only move during transfer window
Transfer window
The transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other countries into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA...
s—during the close season and half-way through the league season. There are exceptions for unsigned professional players in the lower divisions.