In goalunited, the buying and selling of players is handled exclusively via the bank. It is only the bank that players can be sold to at the currently calculated sales value and only the bank can place players on the transfer market and receive the auction revenue.

For the managers, this means a high level of security on the one hand, since they already know at the time of putting the player up for sale how much money they will receive and don't have to wait for the result of the auction. But it also means that any auction revenue in excess of the sales value will accrue to the bank - but similarly, any deficits of transfers effected below the sales value will be borne by the bank. Not least, the bank protects all fair-playing managers in goalunited against cheating, which is why this system has proved to be very solid.

Before explaining the transfer market itself, a few explanations on the market value (determining the current value of a player), the sales value (corresponding to the value received from the sale) and the contractual system (since the term of contract can influence the sales value).

The market value (MV) is determined on the basis of the transfers of the previous 4 weeks through sophisticated statistical methods. For this purpose, the players are allocated to so-called clusters in order to include as many of their characteristics as possible in the evaluation (→ Clusteranalysis).

The MV of a particular player should roughly match the value that managers, who can afford to buy him, would pay for him at the time. The market values are calculated daily and consequently the market values of all players might change every day.

The sales value (SV) corresponds to the value, which is paid immediately by the bank when a player is sold. The SV is derived from the market value, the term of contract (→ contractual system) and the length of time the player has spent at the club.

The sales value is highest when the player's contract has expired and the player has been with the club for over 9 weeks (→ 9-week rule). Due to the incorporated sales fee, the SV no longer matches the MV after this period. The player's contract is regarded as expired from two weeks before until two weeks after the contract end. At any other point in time the SV is lower than the MV - the longer the remaining contract term the lower the sales value. Therewith this regulation enters for players (from Version 2009.III) out of the own youth squad, the players must have 15 points of experience (15-XP-Rule).

After the first 9 weeks as a team member, the SV corresponds to the MV * (100 - x)/100, with x being the remaining contract term in weeks.

If a player is injured, his sell value loses about 10% per week of injury (2 weeks of injury → -20%, …). The players sell value loses 15% if he got a red card in a league match.

The salary of an individual player is calculated on the basis of the market value and the contract term. With an 18-week contract (18W), the weekly payable salary is 1/250 of the MV. The shorter the contract, the higher the salary and vice versa.

The modifiers at a glance:

• 2W = 1/250 * MV * 2
• 9W = 1/250 * MV * 1.25
• 18W = 1/250 * MV
• 36W = 1/250 * MV * 0.75

During the period from two weeks before until two weeks after the contract end, the player can be sold at the full MV reduced by 10 per cent provision for the bank. Players, who are not sold during this period and whose contract is not extended by their manager will automatically receive a new 18-week contract, with the salary depending on the current MV.

The salary modificator for players originating in your own youth team is only 1/1500 * MW. That is until they will be sold or turn 22 years old.

To make any changes to the contracts, the users need to click on the contract button on the Squad page.

During the first 9 weeks (63 days) of a player's club membership, his sales value is substantially lower than his market value. This applies both for players, who are bought on the transfer market, and for young players, who are taken into the squad.

With each week of continued club membership, the SV gets closer to the MV. After 9 weeks, the deductions merely amount to 1% of the MV per week of remaining contract term.

The 9-week rule prevents players from getting bought and sold at a whim or purely on a profit basis. It forces managers to carry out planning for new commitments at least for the medium term and not to regard players as a pure commodity.

Players originating in your own youth won't reach the full SV, until they have more then 15 points of experience (15 XP). This reflects that the bank is not willing to pay too much for unknown players.

Contracts can be extended at any time to the maximum length of 36 weeks. However, the contract is not actually extended, but the current contract is cancelled and replaced by a new one. This means that the salary is recalculated based on the current market value and that the sales value is adjusted to match the new contract length.

Contract terms can also be reduced, with the minimum period being 2 weeks. This is not possible during the first 9 weeks of the club membership. Once again, the rule is that the salary is recalculated on the basis of the current market value and that the sales value is adjusted to match the contract term.

In addition, 1% of the player's current market value must be paid as compensation to the player for each week, by which the term is reduced. The deductions are the same as for a direct sale. But it may make sense to reduce a long contract term, if you plan to sell a player in the medium term and expect his market value to increase markedly by then.

If a player no longer fulfills the requirements, becomes too expensive to maintain, or if the club wishes to pocket the transfer money, this player can be sold to the bank at any time. The only restrictions are that players cannot be sold if they have been with the club for less than 48 hours, if the team would have less than 15 players due to the sale, or the manager has already reached his limit of 25 sold players per week.

To sell a player, you must click on button sell player on page Squad. It is not possible to sell players directly to other managers.

The amount, which the bank offers for a player, always coincides with his sales value (SV). A player's sales value can be found in the squad list and the player details.

The transfer market in goalunited is open at all times and serves to search for and sign new players. To buy players, you have to use the search to find suitable players, for whom you can then bid.

While the players are on the transfer market, their values do not change - apart from the fact that they age normally.

There are two different search facilities to find players in the transfer market: the simple search and the advanced search (premium feature). With both search facilities you can enter a nationality and you have to enter the position, for which you wish to find a player. In addition, the simple search allows you to specify an area of strength (→ Base Strength). The advanced search, on the other hand, allows you to delimit your search with numerous further criteria in order to find a suitable player more quickly.

Premium Features The advanced search - available exclusively to premium account users - offers various options to search specifically for players with certain characteristics. Up to five filter criteria can be specified to search for players with skills at certain levels, with talents, with a specific character or in a certain age bracket.

The last minute search is part of the advanced search. Contrary to the other search options, it offers the possibility of searching for all players - without specifying a position - where the auction will end in the next 60 minutes. Of course the search can be narrowed down by further criteria here as well.

After clicking on button Search, the players corresponding to the set criteria will be listed (in chronological order of auction end time). If there are more than ten players, an horizontal bar will appear underneath the results list, with which the other players can be displayed. However, the maximum number of results that can be displayed is 500.

Each player will be offered on the transfer market for 72 hours (3 days). If he is not bought within this period, he will be placed back on the transfer market with a lower starting price. If the player is still not bought after several unsuccessful rounds and a substantially lower starting price, the player's career will end. In the case of downtimes, during which goalunited might not be accessible, all transfers will be extended accordingly.

In all lists (Search result, Your biddings, Observe), a double click on an entry will bring up the player Details. In addition, bids can be submitted for a player via the bidding button located to the right of the entries.

Premium members have the additional Notices function available here.

As long as there are fewer than 25 players in the team, you can bid for players on the transfer market. However, with each submitted maximum bid the assumption is that the player will be part of your team in future, unless and until you have been outbid. If there are 24 players in your team, for instance, and your maximum bid for one of the players in the transfer market still stands, you cannot submit any bids on other players.

And of course, you can only bid as much money on the transfer market as you have available. The total value of all maximum bids is temporarily withdrawn (blocked) from the account and reimbursed as soon as another manager submits a higher bid.

If you hold the highest bid for a player at the time the auction ends, you win that auction and your club signs the player. In this case, the amount of the winning bid is transferred to the bank - the bidder is reimbursed the difference from their specified maximum bid (if higher). After approx. 5 minutes (it might take longer in rare cases), the player will then appear in your Squad listing. At that point in time, he will have a 9-week contract and the salary will be determined by his current market value.

All players, for whom bids are made, are shown in this list. As long as you hold a maximum bid on the player, the entry is shown on an orange background. During this period you can also submit a new (higher) bid, possibly to preempt other managers.

Each bid for a player must be at least 2% higher than the highest bid shown. A bid assistant automatically submits increased bids up to your specified maximum bid value. If two managers submit the same bid, the bid submitted first is deemed to be the higher one.

After the end of the auction, the players will remain in the Your biddings listing for two days so that you can check who bought the player at what price. If players are to be deleted from the list earlier, you can place a tick in front of their name and then click on button Remove. Since bids cannot be revoked, it is not possible to remove players from the listing, for whom you currently hold the highest bid.

Premium Features In order to monitor the auctioning of a player you can click on an observation button (eye symbol), which places the player in the Observe list (premium feature). The button is located at the bottom of the page and appears as soon as a player has been selected in the results list. Up to 25 players can be included in the list.

Players remain in the 'Observe list' for a further two days after the end of the auction so that you can check who bought each player at what price. If players are to be deleted from the list earlier, you can place a tick in front of their name and then click on button Remove.

Sold players of your own team will be added to the observation list, so you can follow their auctions on the market.