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When you look at a contract in Football Manager, the first number that grabs your attention is always the wage. It is simple, clean, and easy to understand. A player like Erling Haaland earns £23.4M per year at Manchester City and on the surface that tells you everything you think you need to know.
But the truth in FM26 is that the wage is only the starting point. What really affects your club’s finances is everything sitting underneath that number. And while Haaland is a dramatic example, this applies to every level of the game. From elite superstars to backup fullbacks in League Two, the hidden cost structure works exactly the same.
What is the Cost Over the Length of the Contract?
If you take Haaland’s base wage and multiply it by the length of his contract, you get £210.6M spread across nine seasons. That seems like a straightforward calculation. Many FM players do this instinctively.
The problem is that almost no contract in FM is actually that simple.
In Haaland’s case, his deal includes a 5% wage rise every year. That rise pushes his salary from £23.4M in year one to more than £34M by the final year. When you add the escalating wages season by season, the final cost is £258M rather than £210.6M.
This can happen with any player you negotiate with. Even a 1K per week rise in the lower leagues stacks up quickly across a three or four year contract.
At this point, Haaland is on: £258M
Bonuses: The Multiplier Effect
Once wages are sorted your eyes move to the bonus section. At first you might glance at it and think everything looks harmless. The truth is that bonuses are where most clubs lose money in FM. They do not affect the wage budget and the game does not warn you if you are creating long term problems. What makes them dangerous is that they do not behave the same way.
Loyalty payments are spread across the length of the contract. In Haaland’s case the remaining total is £19.75M and the club pays a portion each year. That part is predictable and steady.
At this point, Haaland is on: £278M
Performance bonuses are different. Appearance fees, goal bonuses and unused substitute payments are multipliers. They activate every time a player triggers them, which means they can stack up quickly without you even realising it.
Haaland’s contract includes:
- £82K for every appearance
- £85K for every goal
- £22.5K when he is an unused substitute
For a player of his level it is reasonable to expect at least 30 appearances, 20 goals and around 5 matches where he stays on the bench. When you apply those numbers, the season looks like this:
- 30 appearances at £82K each create £2.46M.
- 20 goals at £85K each add £1.70M.
- 5 unused substitute tags add £112.5K.
That is a total of £4.27M per year from multipliers alone. Apply it across nine seasons and you get just over £39M. These bonuses grow into a major financial commitment that has nothing to do with the wage budget and will not show up in projections until the spending has already happened.
At this point, Haaland is on at least: £318M (£100M more than just the wages!)
This pattern appears in every league. A League Two winger might have a £350 appearance fee, but if he plays thirty times you are still paying more than £10K in hidden expenses. A young striker in the National League might have a £200 goal bonus. If he scores twenty times, that is £4K on top of his wage. The scale changes, but the financial effect is identical. Regular starters and regular scorers always activate their multipliers.
Where Can I Check My Costs?
- From Club head to Finances
- Click on Expenditure tile
What does Affect Wage Budget?
Affects Wage Budget:
- Wages → Player Wages
Don’t Affect Wage Budget:
- Loyalty Bonuses → Loyalty Bonuses
- All the other Bonuses → Bonuses
- Date Created
- 05 Dec 2025 17:40:12
- Date Updated
- 05 Dec 2025 17:40:12
- Last Comment
- 06 Dec 2025 11:45:37
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Phild64
obscene money