At various times during the season you see a number of clubs signing players for an undisclosed fee. Could someone please explain why clubs do this, especially as when their books are audited at the end of the year, that figure will become known anyway. Further more surely the administrators of the game would be informed of the fee. So why all the secrecy at times. Thanks for your help.
Pretty sure it is when they are in for more than one player, if the other selling club sees they are paying x amount for one player they would want higher x amount for theirs. Probably wrong I usually am.
I've often wondered that too. Think it might be twofold, a face saving exercise for the selling club and the player (low valuation) and a tool for the buying club, to ensure that they get a higher price for the player than they bought him for, if things don't work out and they decide to sell after a season or so.
If either club do not want to disclose the fee, they can ask the other party to keep it "undisclosed". Will normally happen if the fee is over-inflated and the buying club do not want outside parties to know they have paid over the odds or if the selling club are letting a player go on the cheap. (eg Michael Turner to us, undisclosed transfer later found out to be ÃÆÃââââ¬à ¡ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã4 million which was considered on the low side by most people). Accounts are usually released 6 months after the season finishes, so potentially it could be 18 months before any fee has to be disclosed.
We got Turner for ÃÆÃââââ¬à ¡ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã2.8m........... The Hull board would have been lynched if that was known at the time.
We paid ÃÆÃââââ¬à ¡ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã4 mil Solsec, but ÃÆÃââââ¬à ¡ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã1.2 mil of that went to Charlton and Brentford (his previous clubs) due to sell on fees both had in place.
