As Trent Alexander-Arnold , Mohamed Salah , and Virgil van Dijk enter the final six months of their current contracts, clubs outside of the Premier League are watching with interest. While Liverpool will be keen to re-sign three of their most important players before their contracts expire on June 30, the decision could be out of their hands. As part of the groundbreaking 1995 Bosman ruling, clubs from other countries can discuss and finalise pre-contract agreements with players in England up to six months before the expiry of their current deals.
Advertisement With so many high-profile players set to be out of contract in the summer, talk of pre-contract agreements will undoubtedly enter your radar in the coming weeks and days. To help you get your head around it all, The Athletic explains how it all works. What is a pre-contract agreement? A pre-contract arrangement is when a player agrees to join a different club at the expiry of their current contract.
After the interested club provides written notice of their intent to do so, talks can begin up to six months before the expiry of a player’s current deal. According to the English FA’s regulations, breaches of this requirement can result in penalties. However, interested clubs often covertly contact a player’s intermediaries without express warning to the player’s current club to discuss a potential recruitment strategy well in advance of initiating formal pre-contract discussions.
This six-month rule applies only t.
