Poaching protections are important both for the stability of organizations and to avoid situations in which legitimate contracts are undermined by competing offers from other teams during the season without the agreement of all parties – the player, the current management, and prospective employer.

This is why, starting today, we’re taking steps to extend poaching protections from the regional level to the global level through the Interregional Anti-Poaching and Anti-Tampering policy. Formerly, there were no interregional poaching protections, but with interregional transfers becoming the norm, it’s now important that any such transfers happen in a way that does not undermine the stability created by legitimate contracts. The contracts currently protected all conform to regional league standards meant to protect players, such as minimum compensation.

Why are tampering and poaching problems?

During the season, it’s important that players aren’t being distracted from their preparation or being tempted to play at less than 100% by offers of employment from rival teams.

When players and teams sign a contract they are entering into an agreement that a player will play for a team during a defined period of time and be duly compensated – players abruptly dissolving their contracts due to employment discussions with other teams during the season creates a chaotic environment for teams and players and undermines stability for teams and their competitors.

This doesn’t mean that we don’t want players to ever switch teams or find the team that is the best fit for them – players always reserve the option of exercising buyout clauses that may exist in their contracts, discussing the possibility of being traded to another team with their management, or simply waiting until their current contract is up before engaging in any negotiation they want. Ultimately, the value of contracts goes both ways. For players, contracts provide stability and the promise of a paycheck. For teams, contracts guarantee that contracted players play for their team and if a player wants to leave a team, the team management  are a necessary part of that discussion. This is an important dynamic to preserve, and poaching protections are one way of doing so.