westoelad wrote: Not so sure either whether tapping should be stopped-it's known as head-hunting in any other profession and is a commonly accepted practise.
Yes, but in sport the talent contains all the value of the organisation, so rightfully its protected. Rather than compare it to head hunting, think of it being like a company stealing or manipulate another end product, or even the market as a whole - not accepted in business.
Don't really see how this can be enforced to be honest. What constitutes "tapping up"?
I'll take a huge example from football, Virgil Van Dijk, arguably one of the most sought after players in world football. He plays for Southampton, and as their asset he is not allowed to talk to other clubs about business interests until his club grant permission. This off-season it emerged that the player unwittingly announced he had been in secret talks with Liverpool where guarantees and contracts were discussed. This has a number of effects, mainly it prevents the selling club for getting true market value because the player has already decided where he wants to go and puts off other buyers from entering the race, the buying club in this instance using an illegal tactic to save themselves money and guarantee the player.
Van Dijk ended up refusing to train when Southampton, not wanting to be bullied when it all came out, told Liverpool to do one. So yes, its a huge problem and one that comes with advantages.
ITs entirely likely that bigger counties could interfere and bully players out of counties by revealing the riches on offer elsewhere. No one wants this; players refusing to play, etc.
A player who is in contract with another organisation has absolutely no reason to discuss business with another organisation.