What really goes on behind the scenes of a big football transfer

I’ve been privileged to have worked in the football industry for over 13 years. During that time, I have been involved in high-profile Premier League and Football League club takeovers, multimillion-pound international transfers and player contract negotiations. In addition, I’ve helped players with their image rights, commercial deals and with a variety of disputes and disciplinary matters. I’ve worked with clients advising them on sports broadcasting agreements and providing legal support on all sorts of regulations, including the financial fair play rules, third-party ownership, the international Fifa transfer rules and the intermediaries regulations.

Ever since I started my work, friends have asked me about what goes on “behind the scenes” in the football world. The media relays some of this information on the business of football, but my idea was to give some accessible detail based on my industry experience. I set out to write my book, Done Deal: An Insider's Guide To Football Contracts, Multi-Million Pound Transfers And Premier League Big Business to explain it all – from how player salaries are structured, to how Brexit will affect the UK football industry and even what happens when football stars misbehave (for example, the various Luis Suárez misdemeanours). The most common questions I get always relate to how transfers really work. The below explanation will hopefully give you an idea.

Read reports in the press and transfers seem straightforward: a club targets a player and the deal is finalised. Easy. In practice, the process, from identifying the talent to signing the deal, can be complex. Back in the Eighties and Nineties, it was quite usual for players to discuss, negotiate and sign long-term contracts with their new manager, without the involvement of agents, chief executives, directors of football or chairmen. The opposite is now true. Today it is unusual that a player in any of the top four divisions doesn’t have an agent.

It's complicated

For any high-profile multimillion pound transfer – think deals involving Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona (£142 million), Paul Pogba to Manchester United (£89m) and Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool (£75m) – usually two areas of agreement need to be reached between the buying and selling clubs and between the buying club and the player. Although both sound straightforward, they are usually anything but. Agreeing multimillion-pound transfer fees is only part of the larger challenge. Working with various agents is also required, in order to agree a weekly wage plus a fee for signing on, as well as loyalty and performance bonuses. The devil is in the detail.

Transfers can become a game of interlinked negotiations. One transfer can set off a chain reaction. Suppose Manchester City have a choice of two players and are negotiating hard to get the best deal. Such a negotiation and transfer may take until the last few days of the window. Once the club agrees the deal, the agent of the player that Man City have rejected may have been negotiating simultaneously with several other clubs and one of those clubs may now try to complete the transfer. During the January 2018 transfer window, Man City expressed an interest in Arsenal’s Alexis Sánchez, but as soon as their interest cooled City’s neighbours United moved swiftly to secure the Chilean’s services. Such negotiations will not just take place in the club’s boardroom. They may include many months of WhatsApp messages, emails, calls and informal face-to-face meetings.

Whether a club chooses to buy, waits to negotiate a particular deal or pulls out of a transfer will inevitably have knock-on consequences for other transfers that are directly or indirectly linked. An astute agent will be aware of all these types of situations at multiple clubs, throughout various leagues worldwide. An agent will be playing the equivalent of multiple games of chess at the same time, looking for the right transfer opportunity and strategically planning a number of moves ahead.

Many of these issues – transfer fee negotiations, agents’ commission, contract renegotiations, image rights deals, work permits and international transfer clearances are being worked on in parallel. This is the bread-and-butter work for clubs and agents alike.

Transfer fees are usually paid in instalments

Any club wanting to invest huge amounts in a superstar player needs to consider the total investment they will be making. When newspaper headlines quote a transfer fee of £35m, many fans would be forgiven for thinking that a buying club transfers £35m to the selling club on the day of the transfer and that is that. In fact, the reported total headline transfer fee is often different from the actual amounts paid to the selling club.

Let’s suggest that Liverpool pay £35m for a Brazilian international player. The transfer agreement may state that Liverpool pay:

• £15m up front. • £5m on both the first and second anniversaries of the player’s transfer. • £5m if the player makes 50 appearances for Liverpool. • £5m if the player wins the Champions League and the Premier League with Liverpool (£2.5m per win).

If the player doesn’t make 50 appearances for Liverpool and the club doesn’t win the Champions League or Premier League, then the club will only ever pay £25m to the selling club out of a headline reported figure of £35m.

Wages are the big investment

The £35m transfer fee is only one element of a much larger package – and this is where it can get expensive. Usually a player’s salary over the length of a contract will be a significant investment by the buying club. The average salary of a Premier League player in 2017 was £2.6m per year, or just over £50k a week. An elite international at a top Premier League club could be earning £10.4m per year. This means that a player earning £200k on a five-year deal will add an additional £52m in wages over the lifetime of the player’s first contract (£200k x 52 weeks x 5 years = £52m).

While it may not be immediately obvious to the fans, a £35m transfer actually equates to a club outlay of £87m. Deep pockets are required. It means that the club’s directors, technical team, scouts and manager need a very clear picture of what the team’s budget will be and that simply equating spending to how much a club has paid by way of transfer fee is only half of the bigger transfer picture.

Done Deal: An Insider's Guide To Football Contracts, Multi-Million Pound Transfers And Premier League Big Business by leading Premier League lawyer Daniel Geey, is published by Bloomsbury Sport. Available now.