Every summer, hundreds of millions of dollars flow through the global football transfer market. And every summer, a significant portion of the money owed to development clubs goes unclaimed — because the clubs that earned it didn’t know how to ask for it, didn’t have the right paperwork, or simply didn’t know they were entitled to it at all.
Training compensation and solidarity contributions are not charity. They are legal entitlements built into FIFA’s Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) — obligations that the buying club is required to fulfil. Yet in 2022 alone, 1,715 claims related to solidarity payments and 604 related to training compensation ended up before FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber. These obligations are routinely ignored, underpaid, or contested. That means money that belongs to your club is sitting uncollected.
What Is Training Compensation
Training compensation rewards the club or clubs that developed a player during their youth years. It is triggered in two situations:
- When a player signs their first professional contract, regardless of whether a transfer fee is involved; and
- Each time a professional is transferred internationally, up to the end of the season of their 23rd birthday.
The compensable training period runs from the season of the player’s 12th birthday to the season of their 21st birthday. Each year is assigned a monetary value based on the category of the training club.
FIFA divides clubs into four categories — Category 1 (elite academies) down to Category 4 (amateur/grassroots) — with each national association publishing the corresponding annual training costs. The calculation is straightforward: annual cost × number of seasons trained at your club.
One rule that catches clubs out: training between ages 12 and 15 is always calculated at Category 4 rates, regardless of your club’s actual category. The exception applies only if the player signed their first professional contract before the end of their 18th season.
When Training Compensation Does NOT Apply
- On domestic transfers (both clubs in the same national association)
- If the player is over 23 at the time of transfer or first professional signing
- If the player moves from a higher-category to a lower-category club
- For EU/EEA clubs that did not offer the player a professional contract and cannot justify their entitlement (a Bosman-era carve-out under RSTP Annex 4, Article 6)
What Is the Solidarity Contribution?
The solidarity contribution is in many ways the more powerful right for development clubs — because it never expires.
Whenever a professional is transferred internationally while under contract, 5% of the transfer fee is distributed as solidarity contributions to every club that trained the player between the ages of 12 and 23. This applies whether the player is 25 or 35. Every future transfer they make generates a solidarity pot for your club, as long as they were registered with you during those years.
How the 5% Is Distributed
- Ages 12–15 (4 years): 0.25% of the transfer fee per year
- Ages 16–23 (8 years): 0.5% of the transfer fee per year
Example: A player sells internationally for €10 million. Your club trained him from age 13 to 17 (4 years). Your solidarity entitlement across those four years:
- Age 13–15 (2 years × 0.25%) = €50,000
- Age 15–17 (2 years × 0.5%) = €100,000
- Total: €150,000 — and that repeats on every future transfer he makes under contract.
Training Compensation vs Solidarity: The Key Differences
| Training Compensation | Solidarity Contribution | |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | First pro contract or international transfer | Any international transfer under contract |
| Age limit | Up to player’s 23rd season | No limit — entire career |
| Training years | Ages 12–21 | Ages 12–23 |
| Calculation | Club category × years trained | 5% of transfer fee, split proportionally |
| Domestic transfers | Not applicable | Generally not applicable |
| When it ends | After player’s 23rd season | Never |
Training compensation is a finite, early-career right. Solidarity is a perpetual one. A player your academy developed for three seasons at age 14–17 could generate solidarity payments for your club across a 15-year professional career. Track your former players.
The FIFA Clearing House: Useful, But Not Automatic
In November 2022, FIFA launched the FIFA Clearing House (FCH), an automated system built around the Electronic Player Passport (EPP) — a digital record of every club a player has been registered with. The FCH calculates and distributes training rewards and has significantly improved transparency.
But the EPP is only as accurate as the data behind it. If your club’s historical registration records are incomplete, incorrect, or were never properly digitised, your entitlements may not appear — and you will need to take active steps to correct them before you can claim.
What Club Owners Should Do Right Now
1. Audit your player records. Don’t wait for a transfer to happen. Review registration records for every player who passed through your academy — seasons attended, ages, any gaps. If those records don’t align with FIFA’s database, your claim gets challenged.
2. Verify the EPP for former players. Once a player turns professional, check that your club appears correctly in their Electronic Player Passport on FIFA TMS. Errors are common, especially for players who moved across associations as teenagers.
3. Be proactive — don’t wait for payment to arrive. In 2022, solidarity and training compensation payments collectively represented a fraction of what was legally owed. When a transfer happens, send a formal claim to the buying club immediately. Silence is not compliance.
4. Think long-term with solidarity. A former academy player with a modest market value today might be sold three or four times over a 15-year career at progressively higher fees. Those entitlements accumulate. Keep tabs on where your former players end up.
5. Know the dispute route. If a claim goes unpaid, the FIFA DRC is your forum — but it requires proper documentation and legal preparation. Prevention is cheaper than litigation.
How Gameplan Legal Can Help
At Gameplan Legal, we work with club owners at all levels to identify, protect, and enforce their training reward entitlements. Whether you’ve never reviewed your EPP data or you’re already in a dispute with a buying club, we can help.
We offer:
- Entitlement audits — reviewing your player records and EPP data to identify what you are owed
- Claim enforcement — drafting demand letters and, where necessary, representing you before FIFA’s DRC or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)
- EPP dispute resolution — challenging inaccurate player passport records
- Transfer structuring advice — ensuring training rewards, sell-on clauses, and contractual protections are properly built into any deal
You invested in that player. The law says you should be rewarded for it. We make sure you are.
Ready to find out what your club is owed? Contact Gameplan Legal today for a confidential consultation.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Rules are governed by the FIFA RSTP (July 2025 edition) and applicable national association regulations.
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