I Had posted this previously but i though that this might be helpful:
1. Try to limit your squad to a maximum of 25 players. If you have a busy campaign then 28-30.
2. Avoid paying players any more than 25,000 per week - this may vary depending on league division. Only your great players should be allowed to earn more than this or if a player may request it. Don?t buy players over 25,000k/week however. People have been saying this is impossible but this has been tested with Brescia (Serie A), Barcelona(Div 1.) and Napoli (Serie
and its been working fine. Not every player is below 25k in my team. I have 4 players over 25k. But they are great players and "deserve" the wages (from 26-32k).
3. Rely on youth team rather than market. This is extremely beneficial for small teams in lower divisions. Youth players with low skills will be much better in the lower leagues. I promoted 7 youth players with Napoli and sold half my squad for a cool profit. I did struggle, but 3 seaons down the track I?m financially sound and 3 of my youth players are worth over 20 million!
4. Never spend more than 15-20% of your cash. I normally never spend over 6 million for a player. I have spent 8.9 Million once.(and 14.4 for kaka but then l8tr sold him off cuz he wasnt fitting well into the team. Sold for 11.0 mil)
5. As soon as you start a season. Invest at least 15 million over 2-3 seasons. Do not take this money back as you will have to pay the banks.
6. Loan out promising players for a fee. Loaning out a youth player for cheap will make an easy 300k- 1mil profit.
7. Look at your accounting journal. Make sure that you will have a profit at the end of the season using the remaining months option.
8. Stadium tickets are very important. Instead of raising prices to get more cash, it?s best to reduce the price and get more fans...surprisingly you get more money.
To illustrate this point I have just been through my remaining matches and have done the following.
Put every match on Normal. I calculated the remaining months forecast profit.
Put every match on "reduced -25%" prices. The remaining profit raised by 300,000.
Put every match on "raised +25%" and I made a forecast loss of 1 million, from the original number.
So I performed the following task.
This is very time consuming but its best to predict a good annual forecast and gain a few thousand to a few million pounds!
Go to the Finance Menu. Click on remaining months. On the left side you will see the ticket sales forecast. The next home will be there, then a few weeks later then next home game after that as so on.
Note down the number on "normal" ticket prices. Then go back and change the ticket prices to "raised +25%" Note down the income forecast for that match again. Then go back and change to "reduced -25%". Then compare the three. Surprisingly lowering the price for a not so important game will raise fans by up to 30%. Giving you a bigger profit.
I also noticed that some matches already had a full house at "Normal". So I raised these prices and fans dropped by an average of 15% but the income was phenomenal. So careful planning is needed to maximise income.
However on a default level, lowering prices will give more fans and more sales.
10. Don?t go rushing in investing on buildings. Shop smart. Buy buildings that will make you money. Buy one youth camp max at a time... don?t go splashing on other things that are not really needed.
11. Buy smart: If you can get a free deal buy 2 or 3 players and sell them off cheaply next season. Even if you sell a 2 million valued player for 1 million, its still a 1 million profit.
12. Check what expenses are coming out of your wages. Here you will see what you are paying for and where to cut back.
13. Avoid player Bonuses. Its best to bump a players salary a little than to give every player a "match", "goal", "championship" bonus. Bonuses sometimes amount to double the actual players salary. Make sure that when you are negotiating you avoid any bonuses. Please note that if you are playing a European cup and are playing several games a week, the "match" bonus may cause a severe loss in funds.
14. No player is worth over 30 mil pounds. Full stop. Unless you have 1 billion in the bank, it?s really not worth splashing out.
15. Spend only to please fans. Don?t be afraid to spend 5-10k for free tickets and busses. It will help you stay in the job, so some spending is ok. This does not mean you can buy players to make fans happy.
16. When Hiring staff, make sure you hire only the staff members that are absolutely required. When you are low on cash, save money by using the "do-it-yourself" policy. You may not get that 2% merchandising bonus, but you will save the $390,000 annual salary of that specific staff member.
You can easily survive with one chief scout and one assistant manager. There is no need to have a full scouting team to find that special someone. You can even have no scouts at all, and do a search yourself around the world. Of course you may need time to do this, but you will save thousands.
17. If you have insurance for every player, then un-tick/uncheck this. if you have insurance for every player it will cost you millions. With the financial structure imposed by these rules, when a player is injured, its cheaper for you to pay his wage than to play for insurance...(which covers his wage during injury).
18. Negotiate all sponsors deals your self. It`s very easy, and you can almost double your sponsor income.
To do this, turn off the finance help. If you do it before starting a game you get to negotiate main sponsor when the game starts. If you do it in a game already running, you get to negotiate when the current sponsor contract ends.
19. The same applies to advertising boards. Turn off the help and do it your self. Also turn off the 10% advertising fee for the AD agency. Some easy cash saved here.
20. Learn the merchandise part of the game. It`s also easy. The secret is to by supplies in large quantities (gets the in-price down, giving you a large profit on each item you sell). And concentrate on those who you sell a lot of, jerseys, scarves, t-shirts and the TCM games is also good. Try to keep all items in stock, but it`s only the ones I`ve listed you need to by loads of (if you don`t have a lot of time doing this).
I usually let my marketing manager run the show, but I "help" him to by super large quantities when needed (like 300 000 jerseys at 70% discount). Then I let the manager care for all the small items.
21. Selling your stadium name is one quick way to get out of financial trouble. Make sure that you have at least 90% popularity with the fans. I have tried it 10 times in a row on a few old saved games and the Fans percentage drops to 69% from 99%. If you have a good team, then it may be worth the risk...You can also improve this by following step 15!
22.
a) Do the maths. Work out the total wage bill from here. Make sure you can afford to pay the wages.
If you give a player:
10 000 a week (times 52) you`re paying him 520 000 a year.
20 000 = 1 million
25 000 = 1,3 million (My recommended maximum wage)
30 000 = 1,6 million
40 000 = 2,0 million
50 000 = 2,6 million
b) Staff Wage Formula. Ensure that your total wage bill is around 15% of your total Budget (Total cash). Maximum should be 30%. Anything over 30% should be cut down. This is the same rule for any sized club. Try and impose your own SALARY CAP (overall annual fees for entire squad). This will aid your team in avoiding financial trouble.
23. Expanding small stadiums. Is there real need? Example of a 14,000 seater stadium.
If you have a 14,000 seater stadium but you only get 5000 people in the crowd per game, there is no real need to expand. But if you constantly fill your stadium, then it?s an idea to expand your capacity. Having a small ground you won?t be able to expand much, maybe to 20,000-22,000. Have a look and see how much you can expand the stadium by. Also see what the cost will be. A new stadium is over 100 million. So lets at least start by making some more seats and then lowering the prices too. More fans will arrive making more cash and also giving you a good rapport with the fans.
Remember to work on your fan base, there are some buildings that do this, like transport, parking and so on, but don?t spend the millions if you haven?t got it... think smart. Check the points above. They do work for smaller clubs.
(Also if you don wanna go in for the flashy stadium build it putting minimal settings and look at the cash cost accordingly)
24. If your team is badly in debt or if you have had enough of the money problems. Perform an entire revamp of the playing staff. Try and keep your squad to a bare minimum. 18 players. This may mean selling up to 10 squad players. This can make you millions of pounds. Depending on what League you are in of course.
Emergency moves may need to be made in order to stay solvent. Here are some ideas :
Go to contracts and sort by wage. Then sell every player who ranks in the top 10, but isn?t a starter. Also consider selling under-performing "star" players.
Anyone over 25,000 (if you have any) weekly wage gets the chop too.
Then go to your youth team and promote all promising youth players. Even if they will just fill the bench spots. It?s needed to keep the club afloat. Youth players play for Max 1000 per week so this is your best bet.
This works for everyone that has financial problems, in any league or division. Its drastic but works a charm.
25. If a player asks for a pay rise, there is no need to make it 100% of his request. Usually 70% - morale/request is enough to make the player happy with his wage. If he is not happy, you can show him the door.
26. If you are having trouble selling players, then place them on loan with an option to buy. I have had large offers for players who no-one bid for while on sale. However while they were on loan with an option to buy, teams snapped them up the next season. Its a great investment because you get the loan fee and your transfer demand that was settled on at the time of the loan.
27. Finally, Going Public. This option can make or break your team. If you can hold off as long as possible and time it right, you can soar your finances into the hundreds of millions of pounds. Make sure;
a) You made a profit last year. Do this by following the guide closely.
b) You have at least 10 Million pounds worth in Buildings. The more buildings you have the more your overall worth of the club will be.
c) Make sure that your club is worth at least 250-300 million. You will get 49% of the clubs value. So this is very important.
d) Make sure that you are going well in the Maximum Division of your selected League.
28. Do not buy players whom you know that your not gonna use...it's better off to use your reserves or youth so they will improve and no player will go waste.
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