BRUSSELS: Players union FIFPro has complained that the compensation scheme for clubs who develop young players is not fit for purpose writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Not only that but agents benefit to a fare greater extent than small clubs.

FIFPro has raised the issue in its ongoing campaign to challenge the transfer system at law as inequitable.

It has raised its complaint, based on figures compiled by world football federation FIFA, with members of the European Parliament in Brussels.

FIFPro has complained to the European Commission that the transfer system is not being policed effectively by FIFA and the European authorities and needs a total rebuild.

Secretary-general Theo van Seggelen said: “The transfer system is rewarding agents far more than football clubs that produce talent. How can this be right? It’s critical the system is overhauled.”

The revision of the transfer system in 2001, negotiated by FIFA and the EC, included a provision for transfer cash to ‘trickle down’ to clubs who had developed players between the ages of 12 and 21.

Last year, however, according to a report from FIFA’s Transfer Matching System, that sum totalled $20.7m or 0.5pc of a record spend of $4.2bn.

By comparison payments to agents increased by 15pc to a record high of $228m.

FIFPro said that the compensation is meant to make up five percent of the fee for players aged 12 to 23 but some clubs are unaware they are due money or do not have the resources to chase the compensation.

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