In professional sports, a free agent is a team player whose contract with a team has expired, and the player is able to sign a contract with another team. The term came into wide use in North America after sports leagues stopped using a "reserve clause", which provided a repetitive option for the club to renew the contract for one more year, but did not allow the player to terminate the relationship with the team. The result was that a player was essentially property of the team. Once in free agency, a player is in a "pool" of free agents, from which teams can sign players.
Attributes | Values |
---|
rdfs:label
| |
rdfs:comment
| - In professional sports, a free agent is a team player whose contract with a team has expired, and the player is able to sign a contract with another team. The term came into wide use in North America after sports leagues stopped using a "reserve clause", which provided a repetitive option for the club to renew the contract for one more year, but did not allow the player to terminate the relationship with the team. The result was that a player was essentially property of the team. Once in free agency, a player is in a "pool" of free agents, from which teams can sign players.
|
dcterms:subject
| |
dbkwik:baseball/pr...iPageUsesTemplate
| |
abstract
| - In professional sports, a free agent is a team player whose contract with a team has expired, and the player is able to sign a contract with another team. The term came into wide use in North America after sports leagues stopped using a "reserve clause", which provided a repetitive option for the club to renew the contract for one more year, but did not allow the player to terminate the relationship with the team. The result was that a player was essentially property of the team. Once in free agency, a player is in a "pool" of free agents, from which teams can sign players. In Europe some countries such as Spain had a system whereby footballers were entitled to a free transfer at the end of their contract. In most countries however this was not the case until the 1995 Bosman ruling by the European Court of Justice which established this right for players in all EU member nations. The ruling has since been extended to cover other professional sports and players from Eastern Europe.
|