Parents rue ‘unfair’ cost of transferring kids from football nurseries

Parents of children training in football nurseries are calling into question a regulation that all Malta Football Association-approved nurseries sign children as young as 10 over to the club, in a move which turns the young players into the club's 'property'.

The children eventually can only earn their release from one club nursery to move to another if they pay the club financial compensation.

The principle of training compensation is established in FIFA's regulations on the status and transfer of players, but only if the player has been registered as a professional footballer.

On the contrary, signing the MFA's Form Q is mandatory for all boys from age 10, which binds them to the same nursery up until the age of 12 - unless the first club consents to a release, in which case a 'training and development compensation fee' must be paid, as stipulated by the MFA.

Even if these boys leave a club after the age of 12, the new club has to pay the former club its training compensation for every season the child has been registered. Any club that acquires the footballer after age 15 also has to pay the former club training compensation.

But parents who spoke to this newspaper said they felt they had no choice but to bind their children to a football club nursery and also pay any training compensation, which other nurseries do not necessarily pay for every child that wants to switch clubs.

"The MFA says that since the first nursery would have contributed towards the development of the child, we should pay up to anything like €400 or more for every year of training and development, and that excludes the money we already pay for their club kits, training camps and fund-raising," the father of one young boy who plays with an established nursery told MaltaToday.

"Can you imagine private teachers asking you for an extra fee if you decide to change teachers...? Why should nurseries request extra money simply because the child wants to move to another club?"

One of the aides to a football nursery who spoke to MaltaToday said that unless the football club felt obliged to pay the training compensation for a young footballer who showed future promise and could be turned into an investment, it would be the parents who have to pay off the 'release money' for the child's transfer.

The other alternative, as another parent told MaltaToday, would be for the child to "stop playing football, de-register for 18 months and re-apply with a new club. So much for encouraging children to play football..."

The FIFA regulations state that a player's training takes place between the ages of 12 and 23 and that compensation is payable for training up to the age of 21.

However training compensation is due when the player registers for the first time as a professional. Additionally, it is the club registering the player which must pay training compensation to every club with which the player has been registered, starting from his 12th birthday.