- Jun 28, 2011
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You can’t do it without the club’s permission, but if the club agree, there’s nothing to stop you. That’s what I assume/hope is happening with Fulham. They know he’s leaving in the summer, so why not deal now?Not true at all.
Clubs may well unofficially agree stuff with players off the record but they absolutely cannot sign any kind of legally binding contract or pre-contract with a player from the same division. Bayern, for example, are clearly after Goretzka and keep talking about him in the press, and I'm sure they've met "unofficially" with his representatives to discuss whether he's interested, what kind of contract he'd expect etc. but they absolutely cannot under any circumstances sign a contract with him, unless of course they agree a fee with Schalke etc. first but then it's not a bosman. You can say "well it won't stop Bayern" etc. all you like but that's just nonsense to be honest. Name me a single time when that has happened. Unofficially "agreeing" things with a player's representatives is not the same thing as signing a pre-contract which is legally binding.
I'm not naive enough to think that no rule-breaking occurs behind the scenes, let's be honest, every single transfer of any player involves at least some level of "tapping up", but there's no way the clubs sign a legal document like a pre-contract when it's against the rules because it would essentially be like signing a confession that you've broken the rules. It's like taking a time-stamped photo of yourself robbing a bank or something.