Fire Sale Policy
Fire Sale Policy
The policy we have in place for fire sales is no different to a regular transfer, where deals can only be completed within the boundaries of the game.
A ‘fire sale’ is the term used when a manager is leaving a team and intends to do favours for friends by either gifting money or players. Gifting money is achieved by paying far more money for a friend’s player than the player would normally demand. Gifting players is achieved by selling players to friends for considerably less than the player would normally demand. These transfers are normally completed privately to ensure no one else can benefit from the deals apart from the friends of the departing manager.
While this is great for the managers receiving these gifts, it is unfair to all the other managers within that game world, who would not be able to sell their own similar players for the same excessive values or buy the same players for such low values. This gives those friends an unfair advantage over others, who have played the game fairly.
However, there is no specific rule against fire sales due it being very difficult to prove everyone’s involvement and due to innocent people, who may have been unaware a deal was related to a fire sale, being unfairly penalised.
Instead of a rule against this, which would be too difficult to police, a number of safeguards exist to ensure every transfer’s value is within an acceptable price range, protecting against the damage gifting can do. The following safeguards are in place:
- Non-listed excessive bids are protected by the PSM FA, which review higher than normal private bids based on the player’s skill, potential, age and the typical sale value of similar players in that world. The FA’s only role is to prevent gifting of money, if gifting is not suspected then the FA will always approve the transfer. There is no maximum limit set within the game, this is determined by what managers are prepared to spend/sell for, based on the current going rate within each world.
- Listed excessive bids are protected by the transfer market’s auction system, where the highest bid value is always based on the second highest bid.
- Non-listed undervalued bids are protected by the selling team’s board’s minimum asking price.
- Listed undervalued deals are protected by the transfer markets minimum 24 hour listing rule, which auto-applies whenever a player is listed for less than their face value. 24 hours allows enough time for other managers to spot the player and bid, which eventually leads to the player selling for a value you’d expect them to sell for.