Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is declared after two weeks of debts over 500 000 US$, the maximum credit you can get in the bank. A team that has gone bankrupt in debt loses its manager and is converted to a computer managed bot.
Debt
If you have no money left in the bank you go in debt. There's nothing to keep you from spending money even if your balance is zero, you have a line of credit for 500 000 $ at the bank. Only be careful: your finances are in debt and you're going to have to pay some interest on borrowed money. So, better go back over the debt to avoid paying an extra 2% of your total amount under zero as interest every week (it was 3.33% in the early days of the game). Many will have a lot of trouble to pay this interest and at the same time paying off the debt. Especially new clubs should be warned not indebting their club too much. The debt burden, if not repaid quickly, easily adds up.
When you run up debts amounting to 200 000 $, your board will prohibit you from purchasing other players, from replacing your coach and doing anything that would take the debt beyond that threshold. This can seriously affect your progress.
Board reserves
The Board limits the money available in cash to the manager for expenses such as salaries, player transfer fees, or stadium projects. Any assets beyond this working capital will be reserved by the Board to ensure the future stability of the Club. If needed, the Board will release money from the reserves into the working capital, but only at a measured rate.
The Financial Director, who you can hire for your staff, can increase both the working capital and the rate of return from the cash reserves.
Bankruptcy
Bank Warning
When your balance is at this amount or below after an economical update, you will be given a bankruptcy warning. This means troubles for your team, if you do not return your balance to within the 500 000 $ debt limit within two weeks of your bankruptcy warning. You will get a warning about "Danger of Bankrupcy notice" in the front page when you login, so you can't have bankrupcy without noticing it.
| Danger of bankruptcy!!!
Your club is on the verge of being declared bankrupt because you have exceeded the amount you are allowed to go into debt (500 000 €). You have 2 weeks left to remedy this and restore your balance to the limit. Once again: Restore your balance as soon as possible! If you fail in this, your team will be locked and eventually a new owner will take over your position in Hattrick. Also, keep in mind that your cash balance is only updated weekly, so this warning will remain in place even if you are above the limit until the weekly update has occured. So, once more: Start selling players and cutting your costs immediately or you will lose your club! |
As long as you have a plan to get out of debt, you'll probably be fine. Check your revenue and expenses and figure out whether your revenues in the end will be higher than your expenses. However, make sure you don't end up with a balance under the permitted limit for two consecutive weeks.
If you do manage to sort out the financial situation, you can continue to play as normal.
Effects
Bankruptcy is effective if you don't have players for sale with bids enough to reach the "safe zone" and the team has no cash on the board reserves. You will be forced to leave the game!
Old Rule
A rule change concerned the number of logins. Before, you had only 5 logins left after an economy update over permitted limit and there was no limitations concerning the weeks.
You could wait nearly 7 weeks till your first login, again nearly 7 till your second, and so on. You could use your last login also after 35 days and you'd still be owning your team (with an insane debt). The limitation concerning the logins was abolished and the current limitation of two weeks introduced instead of this.
From an official Hattrick announcement:
| Bankruptcy change | 25/08/2006 |
| The Hattrick Football Association (HFA) has had enough of supporting players in bankrupted teams.
- As of September 11, 2006 we will no longer pay salaries to players in teams that have gone bankrupt, HFA's spokesperson says. National team players will however not quit if their teams go bankrupt. HFA will make sure they get transfer listed. | |
FC Barentin knew of that "flaw" and used it to win the Hattrick Masters (at the end he had a debt of 50 000 000 € or even more. The system being perverted in such a way, the HTs had to change it.
See Also
- Farm teams indebt themselves and therefore disappear from the game.
