Dundee have four academy products with contracts expiring this summer.
One – Fin Robertson – has agreed terms on a new deal but is yet to sign the actual paper, while three others – Lyall Cameron, Josh Mulligan and Harry Sharp – are still considering their options.
Because three of them are under the age of 23, Dundee will be due compensation if they choose to leave for another club at the end of their contracts.
Sharp, being 24 by the time his contract expires, will be able to leave on a free transfer.
The value of compensation due is a tricky thing to calculate. But Courier Sport is going to give it a go anyway.
To begin with, there are different processes for a transfer between Scottish clubs and a move to a different league.
We’ll start with Scotland.
The Scottish compensation system
It’s a complicated way to do a transfer, to put it lightly.
If the ‘selling’ club and the ‘buying’ club can come to an agreement on a fee then happy days, handshakes all round and, despite losing a valuable asset, the ‘selling’ club at least bring in some cash.
Often, though, an independent tribunal is required to sort out the wrangling.
The ‘selling’ club will always look for as high a fee as they can justify, while the ‘buying’ club will fight tooth and nail to chip away at that number to get the best value possible for them.
It is the job of the tribunal – made up of different people each time – to cut through the arguments and land on an appropriate fee for the player.
Both Rangers and Aberdeen have been credited with interest in Lyall Cameron’s services. Last summer the Gers signed Dons academy graduate Connor Barron in similar circumstances.
The tribunal decision on the compensation fee was only made at the turn of the year – six months after Barron moved to Ibrox – which shows how long such a process can take.
How are fees calculated?
This requires drilling down into the fine details of the player’s time at the club.
Costs are calculated for each day the footballer was registered at the club since the age of 12.
So, the question becomes how much did it cost the club to employ coaches, physios, doctors, to use training facilities, to feed players, provide kit, transport and any other aspect of coaching young players that brings cost to a club.
Everything is added up.
These costs increase with the age of a player – coaching a 12-year-old costs far less than a player in a first-team environment.
So the length of time the player spends at a club is important.
Lyall Cameron was part of Dundee United’s academy before joining Dundee in 2017, aged 14 going on 15.
Josh Mulligan and Fin Robertson have been at the club since they were pre-teens, so their compensation calculation goes back further to 12 years old.
All three have also been capped up to U/21 level with Scotland, which adds to things.
Mulligan earned the most U/21 caps of the trio with 16 – a Dundee record – compared to Cameron’s 12 and Robertson’s single cap.
Also taken into account is the training category of the two clubs involved. Dundee are classed in training category two, as are the rest of the Scottish Premiership.
If a player moved from Dens to a club in training category one then the Dee would be due a higher compensation fee.
Unfortunately, due to the subjective nature of the Scottish system, we can’t estimate what a move between Scottish clubs might cost in compensation.
Each deal is done on a case-by-case basis, but the Connor Barron, Aberdeen-to-Rangers deal does offer a rough guide to what is possible.
How much for an international transfer?
Though we can’t calculate what a move within these borders might cost, we can have a bash at an international transfer.
That’s because FIFA handily provide an online calculator to do just that.
It must be stressed that this is an estimate using information that is in the public domain and is not necessarily exactly what any potential deal will amount to.
And it is often a lower fee than would be received if the player in question joined a fellow Scottish club.
Plugging data we have into FIFA’s calculator, we can see Josh Mulligan and Fin Robertson’s compensation figures would be the same – they are exactly the same age and were registered at the same time.
If they were to leave Dundee at the end of their contracts to join a category one club, the training compensation fee would be 571,370 euros (£478,248).
Category one clubs include elite clubs. Handily in England we can see who is a category one club by looking at the Premier League 2 competition (the English top flight’s U/21 division) – any club competing there must be category one.
So we have Premier League giants like Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool etc. Plus Championship outfits like Sunderland, Leeds, West Brom, Blackburn and League One Reading.
A fee for a category two club would be less at 395,860 euros (£331,342) while category three would be 215,860 (£180,679).
Lyall Cameron compensation?
Lyall Cameron, due to being at Dundee for less time than the other two, would command a slightly smaller compensation fee.
To category one would be 545,040 euros (£456,209), category two 365,040 euros (£305,545) and category three 185,040 (£154,882).
These figures would be the same if the player was to move to England or Italy or any country – it depends on the training category rather than country.
Again, these are estimate figures and not exactly what will be the case should players leave this summer.
It does, though, give an indication as to what the Dark Blues can expect to recoup if they lose an academy graduate at the end of contract.
Clearly the amount will not be insignificant.
However, prising a young out-of-contract player out of a club like Dundee may end up as a cut-price means to bag a young, high-potential star.
Conversation