Transfers

Selling a player

To sell a player, you place him on the transfer list, which you do from the page of that particular player. You choose what price you want to ask for him and he is placed on the transfer list. To get an idea of the player's value, you can use the Transfer Compare feature, and we always suggest listing at a realistic price. A player, however, needs to have played at least one game for your team to be transfer listed, and you can't transfer list a player more times than he has played games for your team. This restriction does not apply to players promoted from your youth team, or to players that were on your team when you first became manager. The player will be on the transfer list for three days before going to the club that has offered the most, provided somebody has bid for him. A sold player disappears off to his new club after the deadline expires, unless one of the clubs involved in the transfer is playing a match at the time, in which case he will arrive as soon as the match finishes. If a buyer is not found, he will stay at your club. If you put a player up for sale by mistake, you may cancel the transfer. Canceling a transfer is possible for 10 minutes after listing the player, as long as there have been no bids. Your listing fee will not be refunded. Outside this window, you always have the option to buy the player back yourself!

Buying a player

To buy a player you visit the player market, the transfer list, under the Club menu, via the World menu, or via the transfer search icon in the top right corner. You search for what kind of player you want. To make an offer you enter the page of the player by clicking on his name. You must raise the bid by 1 000 US$ or 2%, whichever is greater. If there is no current bid on the player you can bid the asking price, as long as this is equal to or greater than 1 000 US$. Note that the sum of your bids plus the wages of the players on whom you are bidding (you always pay a player's first salary immediately after the purchase) cannot put you more than 200 000 US$ into debt.

You may bid on a player right up until the deadline. If someone places an offer less than 3 minutes before the deadline, the deadline will be extended for another 3 minutes from the point in time that the offer was made.

A great help when buying players is the information concerning his skills, personality ,etc. You can also use the 'Transfer Compare' to see what a similar player has recently been sold for on the market.

Autobidding

Autobidding works in the same way as any normal bid would. If you place a max bid the system will automatically bid for you when needed, always raising the bid with the lowest possible amount (2% or 1 000 US$, whichever is lower).

You can change (both increase and decrease) your max bid at any time, but you can't remove your current bid. Your max bid is only visible to you; other managers just see the current bid.

You can have one active max bid at a time. If your max bid has reached its max, it does not count as an autobid anymore and you can set another max bid if you want.

For some special cases (like when two teams make the same autobid or when two autobidders bid against each other) we have built in some smart logic, here are some examples to help explain this logic.

The agent, the mother club and transfer fees

Placing a player on the transfer list costs 1 000 US$. After the completed deal the player's agent, mother club, and previous club will all take their cut of the sale price. On the player page you can always see how much you will keep if you sell a player. Here are the basics:

How much the agent takes depends on how long the player has been in your team.

The mother club always takes 2% of the selling price. When you're the mother club, you always receive 2% each time that player is sold. Please bear in mind you neither pay nor receive any mother club money when selling a homegrown player for the first time.

The previous club fund always takes 3% of the selling price. When you're the previous club the money you receive depends on how many matches the player played for your team.

See these tables for more info.

When you sell a youth player you are not considered the previous club. But, the next time he's sold, you are considered previous club (provided he has played at least one match for your senior team.)

Transfer proceeds to Board reserves

For some player sales, the Board may decide to transfer a part of the proceeds to Board reserves for later use by the club.

This happens only for specific players, and for most managers it will be a very rare occurrence.

The Board will tell you during the transfer listing process if this is about to happen and, if so, the percentage of the proceeds that will go to Reserves.

The Board may do this when they think a player is being sold for speculative reasons, or as a way to store value. They will reason that the team does not need to replace the player for competitive reasons. (Historically, such players have been called "Gold Bars" by the community, for their ability to hold value over time).

Currently, Boards will only consider retaining money for goalkeepers with at least solid goalkeeping skill, or potential future coaches with at least solid leadership plus inadequate experience or higher.

The percentage of the sale that the Board sends to Reserves depends on how many matches the player has recently played for your team.

The general rule is that for regular starters, all money stays as cash - no money goes to Reserves. Being a regular means playing at least 60 minutes once a week.

Absence due to injury is ignored, but if healthy players are sidelined, more money will be earmarked for Board Reserves.

Example: A player that fits the "Gold Bar" criteria has been starting in league matches all season. When the manager considers selling the player, the Board stands back - all proceeds (after agent fees) would be available to the coach as cash. Now say the transfer listing does not happen and the player is instead put on the bench. After two weeks, 12% of transfer proceeds will be earmarked for Board Reserves. After four weeks on the bench, the earmarked amount rises to 24%. Then the manager decides to start the player again. After six weeks playing league or Cup matches, the player can be sold with no money ending up in Board Reserves.

As a rule of thumb it takes three weeks of playing in a league or Cup match to recover two weeks of inactivity. If only playing friendlies, the recovery takes twice the time. If a player was raised in your team, no money will go to Board Reserves, whatever the skills and starting status of the player may be. This also goes for players that joined the club in the last two weeks and have not had the time to become starters.

Transfers may affect team spirit

Whenever you buy or sell a player you risk a drop in team spirit. The risk increases when you sell a nice player and when you buy a nasty player. There is no risk of a team spirit drop if you sell a youth player within 6 days of him joining the senior squad.

Server shutdowns

Transfer deadlines can be extended (in the fairest possible way) in case of server shutdowns. Also keep in mind that the server might be down just as the deadline approaches. A transfer is only completed once the new player arrived at his new club and may, until then, still be subject to an extension of the deadline when interruptions occur.

You'll be taking a chance by waiting until the last minute before making your move. It is advisable to transfer list your players at a price you think is reasonable, as you may risk selling your player at a lower price than you have hoped for. This way you avoid any possible disappointment because of an unexpected server down.

Fair Play in the Transfer Market

Good players and money are key aspects of Hattrick, which make it very important that no team benefits from abnormal activities in the transfer market. This means that buying players at inflated prices is prohibited, and so is any activity that is designed to give a team a financial benefit of any kind. Only the player attributes such as skills, age, uniqueness, NT/U21 potential, and other qualities which have an influence on the game, play a role in determining a player's market value.