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Money paid to agents for facilitating transfers or contract renewals. Can be enormous - sometimes tens of millions for a single deal. Agents get paid by clubs, players, or both. The fees have grown so large that clubs and FIFA have tried to regulate them. Super-agents like Jorge Mendes and the late Mino Raiola built empires on these commissions.

Public statements from agents designed to pressure clubs over contracts or transfers. Usually involves saying the player is "disappointed," mentioning "interest from other clubs," or hinting they "deserve more." It works by creating fan pressure or forcing the club to respond publicly. Can backfire if the player ends up looking greedy or disloyal. Mino Raiola was the master of it.

Spreading the cost of a transfer fee across the length of the player's contract for accounting purposes. A £100m signing on a 5-year deal costs £20m per year on the books, not £100m upfront. It matters for Financial Fair Play and profit/loss calculations. Clubs use it to make expensive signings look more affordable. Understanding amortization explains a lot of weird transfer behavior.

The elaborate social media campaigns clubs use to unveil new signings. What used to be a press photo and statement is now a cinematic production with teasers, cryptic posts, drone footage, and celebrity cameos. Marketing departments compete to make announcements go viral. Fans complain about it but engage with it anyway. Some announcements now take weeks of buildup.

When VAR rules a player offside by millimeters, usually because their armpit or sleeve is beyond the last defender. The technology can draw lines to this precision, but it feels absurd to disallow goals for body parts you can't even score with. Fans mock it, but it's technically correct under the rules. Led to calls to give attackers the benefit of the doubt.