Wikipedia:WikiProject Sports/Handling sports transactions

This is a WikiProject advice page on article content. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how the content policies may be interpreted within their area of interest. An advice page has the status of an essay and is not a formal Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.

Shortcut WP:SPORTSTRANS

This page in a nutshell: Do not update infoboxes based on anonymous sources. Avoid original research and speculative news. Attribute speculative reports if there is consensus to mention it at all.

Many popular sports, especially at the professional level, receive extensive news coverage. Wikipedia is not a newspaper. However, transactions involving hirings/signings, trades, and firings/releases are often considered encyclopedic for articles on a season for a league/team, or biographies of athletes and other key personnel.

When extensive coverage exists, reliable sources may report breaking news on a transaction based on anonymous sources. Indications that news is speculative include phrases such as "a person with knowledge of the negotiations says", "spoke on condition of anonymity", "has not yet signed a contract", "are expected to acquire", "cannot become official until", and "still trying to confirm details". Additionally, some sports leagues have periods where negotiations can take place, but a deal cannot become official until a future date e.g. the July moratorium in the National Basketball Association (NBA). In these cases, the transaction should not be presented as having been completed, and infoboxes should not be updated.

In the past, some unofficial transactions were not consummated due to reasons including players reneging on verbal agreements, vetoes by the league, complications with no-trade clauses, or a different transaction materializing altogether. If anything is to be presented at all, it should be limited to prose attributed to the source that is reporting the transaction. For example, "On March 5, 2013, ACME News reported that John Doe will sign with XYZ." It would be inappropriate original research and future speculation to present this as "On March 5, 2013, John Doe signed with XYZ."

A transaction can be considered official if sources report it as completed and attribute it to a named, reputable league or team official. Sometimes players that are free agents may announce their agreement to a contract before the team confirms a contract has been signed and completed. Consensus at Wikipedia articles may determine that the player should be reflected in the article as being a member of the team, even prior to an official announcement by the team. Otherwise, it may be a lengthy discussion on the distinction between an "official signing" and a player's publicly announced agreement to sign.

Below are some transactions that were reported as completed, but then fell through after the initial reports:

• {{Current sports transaction}}, template to tag sports articles in the news for a transaction
• {{uw-sportstrans}}, warning template for user talk pages