GOOD NEWS:Why every transfer fee ‘undisclosed’ since Stoke City won court case

GOOD NEWS:Why every transfer fee ‘undisclosed’ since Stoke City won court case

It is 23 senior signings in a row over five years and counting that Stoke City have made when they have paid what has been described as an undisclosed fee.

 

That is 23 senior signings in row since they brought in Liam Lindsay from Barnsley in the summer of 2019 and confirmed that was for a fee of £2 million. Barnsley had argued that the fee should have been reported as undisclosed and it affected their negotiations with Brentford over Lindsay’s centre-half partner Ethan Pinnock, who soon left for London for an undisclosed fee reported to be about £3m.

 

Stoke were taken to court and the case was held virtually during lockdown – and Stoke won. But still, all the deals that have followed from Tommy Smith and Jordan Thompson to Viktor Johansson and Eric Bocat have been for undisclosed fees.

And so have pretty much been every other transfer in the Championship. This summer only Idris El Mizouni (Ipswich Town to Oxford United, £400,000) and Torbjorn Heggem (IF Brommapojkarna to West Brom, £500,000) have been transparent.

Leading football finance expert Kieran Maguire said on thePrice of Football Podcast:”In terms of individual deals, let’s say people believe you have a budget of £50m this summer and you go and sign a player for £40m, selling clubs know that you’ve not got a lot of money left.

“So by keeping the fees undisclosed, you create a bit of uncertainty. I know practically all of Brighton’s deals are for undisclosed fees. We are owned by a poker player, and he will say, ‘never reveal anything of your hand’. And that’s why we see so many individual deals for undisclosed fees.