Si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war.
That's the mantra of Juan de Dios Crespo, the most decorated sports lawyer on the planet, and he told us at The Game Plan - Sports Business Accelerator how used it to handle the largest transfer in football history when it started falling apart in front of him.
Plan A
In July 2017, PSG wanted Neymar and his release clause at Barcelona sat at £222 million. Under La Liga rules, the payment had to go to their offices first, then gets forwarded to Barcelona. Juan walked into La Liga's Madrid offices with the cheque. Tebas, the La Liga president, refused to accept it. His stated reason was that he wasn't sure where the money was coming from. The real reason was that he didn't want Neymar (billed as the next Messi) leaving Spanish football.
Plan B
So Juan moved to Plan B, ignored protocol and bypassed an institution entirely. He boarded Neymar's private jet with the cheque, flew to Barcelona, and handed it directly to the club. Barcelona took the money (but made PSG wait five days for the International Transfer Certificate, a process that takes twenty-four hours. One final act of defiance from a club losing their most valuable asset).
Plan C
If Barcelona had also refused, Plan C already existed. Juan was prepared to go to FIFA and present the cheque formally, turning a transfer dispute into an employment rights case. He would weaponise FIFA against both La Liga and Barcelona simultaneously (under FIFA regulations, a player's employment rights sit above everything else. The ITC (international Transfer Certificat) would have been issued regardless of whether La Liga or Barcelona had accepted the cheque). The dispute over who physically receives £222 million gets settled in the courts afterwards. Neymar joins PSG that week either way.
Each plan escalated. Juan was ready for war. He just didn't need to go there.
The composure you see from the best operators under pressure is partly a personality trait, but it also comes from having mapped every route before you begin. When you know what you do if Plan A and B fail, the other side can't destabilise you because you've already been where they're trying to squeeze.
Most people still walk into a negotiation with only one plan. Before any significant negotiation, you should know what you do if the club won't move on salary, if a clause undermines the deal, if the person who agreed everything verbally is not at the meeting. The contingency should exist before you need it.