Free Agents - The Free Encyclopedia - Free Agent - Wikipedia

In contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise.

In the Bosman ruling by the 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 North America after sports leagues stopped using a " ", 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.

Types Unrestricted free agent

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 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 selections to the original team as compensation for losing the player.

Undrafted free agent

Players 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.

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 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 in January 2010, after spending a few months training with the team to maintain his fitness.

Restricted free agents

NFL Draft (for 2010 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 Undrafted free agents "Plan B" free agency Major League Baseball usage National Hockey League usage Drawbacks for owners Deadlines See also References

^ NFL.com . March 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2010.

By Jon Heyman, SI.com (2008-10-31). . Sportsillustrated.cnn.com. Retrieved 2010-07-03.

McCaig, Sam. .