St Johnstone have had to absorb an eye-watering bill of nearly £500,000 for two young players who didn’t make a single first team appearance between them.
Former chairman Stan Harris confirmed in the Perth club’s latest annual accounts, which produced a six-figure profit for the last financial year, that they were required to pay £240,000 to IFK Gothenburg for William Sandford as a result of Fifa’s training compensation rules.
That was a costly error made BEFORE Harris returned to Saints to steady the ship at McDiarmid Park.
Courier Sport understands that it wasn’t the first time they were caught out, with Millwall receiving around £180,000 for Bobby Dailly.
That administrative error, also while Harris wasn’t involved at the club, has been absorbed in previous annual accounts.
Both Sandford and Dailly were brought to Saints in the summer of 2022.
Neither got first team game-time before being released at the end of that season and it turned out that in both cases there wasn’t an agreement secured to waive training compensation.
As Harris confirmed, Saints appealed the Sandford payment – to no avail.
He said: “Profitability would have been even greater had it not been for an inherited and unexpected training compensation liability payable to IFK Gothenburg of £240k relating to a player registration from 2021/22.
“This was heavily challenged with IFK Gothenburg who refused to discuss the matter with us. An appeal to Fifa was rejected and our appeal was dismissed.”
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