What are the facts?

FIFA is clear on compensation and wants academies and clubs to be compensated for developing players when they turn professional. However, this must be within the structures and following the direction from the local federation.

Sundowns has paid compensation in the past, and being a Category 1 club, anything upwards of R40 000 for one player per year. That figure would vary based on what the development academy can prove, in what was spent over and above the base compensation fee.

From the federation’s perspective, SAFA have made it clear that they are wanting to get up to speed to further understand the issues to do with developmental compensation better so as to educate all the stakeholders involved.

As reported by the Siya crew in the past, SAFA CEO Tebogo Motlanthe has enrolled in a course which is funded by FIFA to equip him with the necessary knowledge to deal with issues to do with developmental compensation payable to development clubs.

FIFA’s commentary on the FIFA regulations on the status and transfer of players, edition 2021, states, in part:

“Training compensation shall be paid to a player’s training club(s): (1) when a player is registered for the first time as a professional, and (2) each time a professional is transferred until the end of the calendar year of his 23rd birthday. The obligation to pay training compensation arises whether the transfer takes place during or at the end of the player’s contract. The provisions concerning training compensation are set out in Annexe 4 of these regulations. The principles of training compensation shall not apply to women’s football.

“A player’s training and education takes place between the ages of 12 and 23. Training compensation shall be payable, as a general rule, up to the age of 23 for training incurred up to the age of 21, unless it is evident that a player has already terminated his training period before the age of 21. In the latter case, training compensation shall be payable until the end of the calendar year in which the player reaches the age of 23, but the calculation of the amount payable shall be based on the years between the age of 12 and the age when it is established that the player actually completed his training.

“The obligation to pay training compensation is without prejudice to any obligation to pay compensation for breach of contract.”