But that point makes no sense when we are talking about a contract having a term, the fact that you brought morality into it is pretty strange. So again is it immoral for a contract to have an end date and is it immoral for a player to only leave at the end date? It clearly isn't immoral, there is no argument to defend that idea outside of the fact that football clubs are so entitled that they demand to get a portion of a previous transfer fee back, in fact even when they get a player for free(for example academy players), they still feel that they deseve a transfer fee.
If you decide to only look at it from the greedy eyes of football clubs, then your point make sense but if you look at it from the outside, football clubs are despicable, their general behaviors border on lunacy. They are not entitled to transfer fees, transfers are the prerogative of footballers it's their FIFA registration.
Yes I was responding to a point that said if a person follows a contract they cannot be immoral by definition.
The pre-Bosman era is interesting because at the end of a contract a player’s registration was still owned by his club. If I understand it, the player was released if not offered the same or better terms by the club who owned his registration. If offered a new deal but refusing it, in preference of a transfer, the player would be sold and the fee set by tribunal (in England at least). The immoral aspect there, I suppose, would be the club could, at the end of the contract, retain the player’s registration (for the purpose of selling the player) and it only had to match the existing contract terms to prevent the player being released, whereas the player could be “worth” much better terms, and the transfer fee eroded the terms he could get at his new club. There were good players on low wages and they couldn’t do too much about it.
No it is not immoral for a contract to have an end date (although many contracts are arguably immoral).
It also is not, in my view, immoral for a player to leave and sign with another club at the end of the contract.
However, there is a grey area in moral terms, when a player who is wanted by his club and is offered good terms which he refuses, declares he wishes to leave and then refuses to do so in the period which would enable the club to recover a fee (and reinvest that in another player to whom very good money would be paid) to offset the very considerable investment into said player.
It comes down to what you think is reasonable. Pre Bosman was clearly unfair to players but it’s really not a mad idea to consider that player and agent power may have gone too far the other way (whether it has is a matter of opinion and clearly players have no power if they aren’t any good).
The player-club relationship is complex but a staggering investment has been made by Utd into Paul Pogba. The club chose to do it but there is an expectation that the player will provide value - that concept at least is reasonable.
You then have to have an argument about value - has Pogba returned fair value on the club’s investment? You then have to have an argument about the aims and motives of both player and club in allowing the contract to run down to its final year and then whether the player and agent are abusing the power they have post-Bosman.
Certain behaviours are a clear abuse of power (such as going on strike to get a move etc). But if a player purposely seeks to erode the value he is returning on the club’s investment, despite the club’s best efforts (to extend his contract or sell), he can quite easily comply with his contract and be shafting the club at the same time. He’s contractually entitled but may not be acting morally; the concept, at least is reasonable.
And so you’re back to an argument about value and whether the player is responsible for deliberately returning poor value. If Pogba goes for free, I think he is deliberately returning poor value but I’ve never been happy about his behaviour or his agent so I am probably biased.
Good player sometimes, of course.