FAI to introduce domestic compensation and solidarity mechanism

I dunno was this posted already?

FAI to introduce domestic compensation and solidarity mechanism


The Football Association of Ireland will introduce a compensation and solidarity mechanism for domestic football on December 1 after brokering an agreement between the eircom League of Ireland clubs and the Schoolboys Football Association of Ireland. Under the mechanism, clubs will be entitled to compensation for training a player from his 12th to 21st birthday if he signs his first professional contract with an eircom League of Ireland club before his 23rd birthday. Eoin Hand, the FAI’s Football Support Services Manager, conducted a comprehensive research of various domestic compensation systems within European football and had several discussions with FIFA before drawing up the Irish model.

The training compensation fee has been agreed at €500 per season which will be paid to the club or clubs responsible for the players training between his 12th and 21st birthdays

Should a professional player be transferred domestically during the course of a contract then 10 per cent of any compensation, or fee, paid to his former club shall be deducted and paid to the training club or clubs as a solidarity payment. The new agreement complements existing FIFA regulations regarding players playing professionally outside the jurisdiction of the FAI.
All domestic training compensation and solidarity payments will be cleared through the FAI and then paid to the training clubs.

The new regulations will not affect existing agreements between eircom League of Ireland clubs and their local schoolboy leagues and clubs as long as these deals are satisfactory to both parties. The agreement between the eircom League of Ireland clubs and the SFAI was ratified by the FAI Board at their meeting on July 17 and the new regulations will come into force on December 1 with a review after 12 months. There issue of retrospective payments will be dealt with directly by the FAI. The details of the regulations will be outlined at regional workshops prior to the introduction of the new regulations.

FAI Chief Executive John Delaney said: "I am delighted that there has been an agreement between the League of Ireland clubs and the Schoolboys Football Association of Ireland. This enables Ireland to have a domestic compensation system that enshrines the ethos of having a system to reward clubs investing in the training and education of young players. This resolution of this issue will greatly assist the FAI’s objective of integrating all levels and sectors of Irish football.”

What do people make of this? I think its a great move and definitely the way forward.

The retrospective payments thing is the only thing that worries me, how would that work? And how retrospective would it actually be? That could be a complete can of worms for most clubs.