Co-Ownership (Italian Football)

[Farmer Reil]

How does this actually work? Nobody I know who follows Italian football seems to know

I asked JohnnyP, but he didn't know either:

I figured you'd be the best one to ask. Care to explain Co-ownership in Italian football to me?

Is it literally that the player is owned by both clubs, thus can play for both? If so, who decides who he plays for in the event that both teams play on the same day/play each other?

Cheers if you can clear this up

Honestly not too sure. I know Juve still have co-ownership over Maresca who they let go to Fiorentina, but apprently if we want half of his ownership again or something, we have to fork out double the price they gave us for him, if that makes sense. It's the same with Adriano who went from Parma to Inter as well. Same with Miccoli who we let go to Fiorentina too, he's still co-owned by us.

Honestly not too sure. I'm quite sure they cant just play for each team in different weeks. I think it's a point where if the team who let go of the player wants the guy back, they can pay double and have him back or something, so in other words they can force the team to let the player go even if they need him. Or so that's how I think it is, but like I said I'm not too sure, someone might Malenko might be able to help a bit so you could try posting this in the Sports forum bit.

[Malenko]

Co-Ownership doesn't happen only in Italy, although from what i've seen in FM it seems they've only applied it to the Italian Clubs.

As JP said that's a way the clubs have of not losing a player for good at once. It usually works for both sides (even if sometimes it doesn't) because the smaller clubs (or with the least money) only pay half of his transfer price and get him to play for them without spending much money. The team who sold it, gets the chance of buying him back if they feel they've made a mistake, as they've only sold 50% of the player (if that makes any sense). At this point, the player can only play for the second team, although the team doesn't own him entirely.

Afterwards 4 things can happen:

1 - The first team wants him back and pays double the price of what the second club payed at first. They'll lose some money but simultaneously they won't lose the player if they think they've done a bad deal letting him go. At least they didn't lose him for good.

2 - The second team pays the remaining 50% of the player and get it all. I'm not entirely sure if they can pay the same amount of money they payed for the other 50% or if the first team can demand more.

3 - One of the teams sell his share of the player to some other team, who gets the rights of having him playing for them, while the other team still can get him back from them.

4 - They leave the things as they are and be happy with it.

These transfers aren't always made in regular 50/50 situations. Sometimes they're done in 70/30 or 60/40 or whatever. Luckily for you, FM doesn't have that option to confuse you even more.

Hope that helped.

Edited May 2, 2005 by Malenko

[Farmer Reil]

Thanks. So it's kind of like a more permanent loan? He goes to another club and plays there, but can always be recalled (even though it costs money this time), or sold permanently?

[Malenko]

You can call it a modified Loan (damn this wrestling thing ).

In a Loan the team who loans the player won't get anything of it except for the fact the second team MAY (not will) pay part of his wages. The second team gets to play with the player and most times at the end of the year the player will return to the original team without the second team getting anything from it.

In this kind of transfer, the first team WILL get money from the transfer, and the second team WILL pay their part of the wages of the player. The advantage for the second team is that while they can still play with him they WON'T lose him at the end of the season unless the first team pays them.

[Guest Pirate Chasin' Booty]

If you play an Italian league in FM its easy to grasp, especially when you have about 30 co-owned players you know nothing about, its a nice surprise when you get offered £17million for 50% of a player you've never even played.