Understanding the Basque rule.

[AceAvenger]

Athletic Club, more commonly known outside Spain as Athletic Bilbao are only allowed to play Basque players and this translates into FM by letting Basque players have a Basque second nationality, which is mostly Spanish players from Athletic Club, Osasuna and Real Sociedad and Bayone in France.

My question is that I heard this rule isn't counted towards youngsters, that I can sign a youngster from anywhere in the world and he'll be considered Basque cos he was at the club from a young age, but how does that translate towards FM, is it like the home-grown rule where he h\as to play 3 years for the club before he turns 21 and how young do they have to be so I can sign them

Thanks.

 

[cicinho]

I am not 100% sure how it would translate into FM. I have never selected Bilbao because I detest everything they stand for. That being said, if the game does allow you to sign youngsters you would need to sign them while they are not eligible for professional contracts as you should not be allowed to give a professional contract to anyone who does not have basque citizenship (even though it doesn't exist).

If that would be the case you would need to aim for foreign younsters as youngsters from Europe could be reluctant to accept citizenship as they would see no benefit of it. Although in common sense terms there would be a lot of benefit in accepting citizenship, as it will allow you to play for the club. All the youngsters I have signed from France or Italy or other European countries do not accept Spanish citizenship unless they do not get capped for their birth country and I pull them up to Spain.

It would be interesting to see if the game is programmed to make the European players accept the citizenship, although I still dont understand how you could give them a professional contract without them being "basque". Therefore you would have to run the risque of losing until them until they accept their fake citizenship and sign for the club professionally.

 

[kandersson]

in FM11 Athletic can sign ANY spanish player (no matter if they're basque or not) under the age of 17. Only spanish though.

When I managed them something funny happened: our third team (I believe it's called Baskonia, playing in spanish 3rd tier) apparently was allowed to sign non-basque players and their manager signed a couple of free brazilians. So I was able to promote them in first team and they immediately got basque nationality! Still counted as non-EU though.

not sure how it works in FM12 as I haven't played the demo

 

[AceAvenger]

in FM11 Athletic can sign ANY spanish player (no matter if they're basque or not) under the age of 17. Only spanish though.

When I managed them something funny happened: our third team (I believe it's called Baskonia, playing in spanish 3rd tier) apparently was allowed to sign non-basque players and their manager signed a couple of free brazilians. So I was able to promote them in first team and they immediately got basque nationality! Still counted as non-EU though.

not sure how it works in FM12 as I haven't played the demo

I would think it's the same on FM12, thanks for the help man.

So I'm allowed to sign Spanish youngsters below 17, when I try to make a new scouting assignment, I'm only allowed to pick Spain along with counties like France, Italy and Andorra, so maybe I can get players under 17 from those counties too.

I'll put that hypothesis to the test ASAP.