A hard-capped allocation market that manufactures surplus.
The pool and the academy pipeline, the under-25 posted-player fork, and the draft in flux.
The pool and the academy pipeline, the widest band in the sport.
The international bonus pool is a TRUE hard cap, with no overage-and-tax band at all, unlike the draft pool. It is tiered so small-market teams get the larger pools, and it is partly a market, because a team can trade for additional pool space. The 16-year-old amateur it signs is priced on a projection carrying the widest confidence band in the corpus.
The international pool is a true hard cap, tiered to the small markets and partly tradeable, and the 16-year-old it signs is a tools-and-frame projection at the widest band in the corpus, agreed years in advance through the academy pipeline. The band is the output, because there is almost no game production to narrow it. A true hard cap, and the widest projection band in the sport: the honest output is the band.
Illustrative engine read on the real international pool and academy pipeline (the true hard cap, the market tiers, the tradeable pool space, the 16-year-old on a Mode 6 tools-and-frame projection at the widest band in the corpus). Composite figures flagged v0 and current-as-of.
The under-25 posted-player fork, the highest-leverage move.
A player posted from a foreign professional league who is under 25, or has fewer than six professional seasons, is treated as an international amateur under the rules, signable only for international-pool money, not a free-agent contract. That is the fork, and it is the highest-leverage move in the amateur market.
A posted 23-year-old under six seasons is an international amateur, signable for pool money despite pro-quality value, which surfaces an enormous surplus and six controlled years after. A posted 25-plus player with six seasons is instead a true free agent, priced in file 04. The age gate is the fork, and it is the sharpest edge in the amateur market. Under 25, a proven star signs for pool money and hands you six controlled years: the largest surplus in the sport.
Illustrative engine read on the real under-25 posted-player fork (pro-quality value at international-pool cost plus six control years, the 25-plus free-agent boundary sent to file 04). Composite player, demonstration figures flagged v0 and current-as-of.
The international draft in flux.
The proposed international draft is a live, contested rule. If adopted, it would replace the pool-and-academy market with a slotted draft like the domestic one and re-price the whole system. The engine prices the current pool system and is flagged to re-price if the draft is adopted.
The proposed international draft would swap the pool-and-academy market for a slotted draft and re-price the system, but the cost-controlled-allocation-generating-surplus logic carries over, so only the mechanism changes. The engine prices the current pool system and is flagged to re-price if the draft is adopted. If the international draft is adopted the mechanism changes, not the logic: the engine re-prices and carries the surplus story over.
Illustrative engine read on the real international-draft-in-flux (the proposed slotted draft replacing the pool-and-academy market, the surplus logic carrying over, the engine flagged to re-price). Composite figures flagged contested and current-as-of.
A proven star signs for pool money and hands you six controlled years on top.
Price the pool. Find the fork.
International Signings prices the true-hard-cap pool and the academy pipeline, the 16-year-old at the widest band in the corpus, and the under-25 posted-player fork that buys pro value at pool cost with six controlled years on top, and is flagged to re-price if the international draft is adopted.