Looks as though there may still be a few issues with the Kane Hemmings transfer

Is it a loophole though, or is it just a case of we've followed the proper rules on this whereas Cowdenbeath have got it wrong? International transfer so FIFA rules, not SFA rules.

 

We believe we aren't obliged to pay anything. So we haven't. Sorted then.

 

He was playing for a Scottish club that have to conform to the rules set out by the SFA.

If he'd have signed for Celtic after they offered him a contract 30 days before his was due to expire then Cowdenbeath would rightly be due compensation (even though he's only been there a year, but that's a different debate).

However, he came to England so he left on an International transfer, where FIFA rules would surely have to apply over those set out by the SFA and the FA?

From what I can gather from that article, it seems like we're in our rights to not pay compensation. It might not be morally right, but if we don't have to then we shouldn't, in my opinion.

 

I know we shouldn't have to but maybe we could compromose, the compensation surely can't be that much?

 

Cowdenbeath wanted to keep Hemmings. They wanted him playing for them next year and they were going to offer him a new contract. To keep within the rules of the governing body they are playing under they inform him of this 30 days prior to the end of their season.

A couple of months later we come in for Hemmings and, unsurprisingly, he prefers us to Cowdenbeath. There's no point trying to be polite about that, we're a much bigger club than Cowdenbeath. Nowt Cowdenbeath can do about that, they're losing their best player, but they ask for a bit of compensation for the way they've helped bring him on in this last year. Let's be reight, if he was still stuck in Rangers reserves, if he hadn't banged in all those goals for Cowdenbeath and gained that experience at senior level, we wouldn't have been interested in him.

But we tell them no, the rules that Cowdenbeath have always worked under don't apply to international transfers. Cowdenbeath didn't want Hemmings going elsewhere, they didn't offer him a contract just to get some compo like we did with Mellis, they wanted him scoring loads of goals for them, but not only won't they have the player, they won't have any money either. They didn't do owt wrong, they followed all the rules, but they're probably going to get shafted. That sounds like a loop hole to me.

It's difficult for us, we feel like we've been shafted for years with bigger clubs taking our best players for a pittance. We don't want that happening any more and we're all pleased to hear that the club are being much stronger in their business dealings. We won't pay over the odds for out of contract players, if they don't like what we've offered they can leave. We won't pay silly prices for players, if Dagenham & Redbridge reject what we think is a good offer for Rhys Murphy, we'll move on to our next target. We won't get conned when selling players, the amount we got for Golbourne, if reports are to be believed, was a brilliant figure. That's what I thought all this would mean. When we sell a player like Vaz Te I want us to get a few million for him, not 500 grand. But I'm not particularly happy that we're trying to get out of paying a small club like Cowdenbeath 50 grand for a player we obviously rate. That doesn't appear to be in the spirit of the whole thing to me and it could backfire because if we continue with those sort of tactics we'll find fewer and fewer clubs are willing to do business with us.

 

I think you're right, I think if we continue with our stance we'll win and not have to pay owt. Seems like a lot of time and effort on a saving of next to nowt and in doing so losing a hell of a lot of good will. I'd prefer us to use that time and effort on ensuring we get multi-millions when we sell our next decent player rather than shafting a small club.

We all think it's so unfair when the Premiership teams keep all the money and the rest of us get nowt, but here we are doing our level best to make sure a smaller club gets nowt. It would have been much easier for us to offer a small fee for Hemmings and have the whole thing sorted months ago rather than bothering with all this. Penny wise, pound foolish.

 

They should have been aware of all the rules and protected their interests in line with those. Bit naive thinking he'd only ever make a domestic move, in Scotland of all leagues.

 

It's a fair point, and I suppose you can't have it both ways. it really all depends on how much the compensation is that they're wanting. I mean what if they're after £50,000-100,000?

Can't imagine it being that much, but we need all the money we can get at the minute.

 

He isn't playing because he as/had a plaster cast on his foot.

 

Firstly Hemmings isn't playing because he is injured. The club have no reason to lie to us about this, if there was a dispute over the transfer its no loss to the club to reveal this to us. We are paying Hemmings' wages, Cowdenbeath are not, so he is our employee, they can't force us not to play him. This dispute isn't over who owns him, its over how much compensation should be paid.

I'd say a 30 day rule under the SFA has no effect on us as we do not fall under the SFA's jurisdiction, but both us and Cowdenbeath do fall under FIFA's jurisdiction, and so FIFA's 60 day rule must apply. Its like them saying this transfer is the eqivilant of an internal scotish transfer between two Scottish teams, but its not, this is an international transfer between a Scotish and English team and so international rules (FIFA) apply.

This dispute will go on for several months now, the SFA can't force Barnsley to do anything, so even if they back Cowdenbeath it won't change anything, ultimately it needs to go to a neutral sports tribunal, which will likely fall under FIFA and its their pi$$ing 60 day rule so they will vote in our favour. As far as I see it they don't have a leg to stand on.

Should a tribunal happen, with Watkins, a top sports lawyer and a Director of the British Association for Sport and Law, and Mansford, another sports lawyer, Cowdenbeath really don't stand a chance, I doubt they have anyone of Watkin's and possibly even Mansford's calibre on their board to deal with this.

 

...and even if Hemmings could not play due to this (which he can), should we then go on to win this at a tribunal (which we will), we would then be able to begin new legal proceedings requesting Cowdenbeath pay us for the damages done by preventing a perfectly legal player to play for us. If he wasn't allowed to play for a long period we could claim that Cowdenbeath cost us promotion and should pay us damages (similar to the WHU vs Sheff U legal case).

Hemmings could also start his own personal legal proceedings for the same reasons, his career has been stalled by them, his family are upset, its had a significant metal effect on him, if he'd have played he could have scored 40 goals and completed a 50m transfer to Chelsea, there for Cowdenbeath owe him...

Cowdenbeath go bankrupt, cease to exist, all because they couldn't understand that Barnsley is from England and the transfer falls under FIFA rules not Scotish ones!

But this won't happen because he can play for us, he's just injured