Although the sight of Han-Noah Massengo donning the colours of another English club following a free transfer may be hard for Bristol City fans to stomach, from a financial perspective for the club it’s the best-case scenario.
Massengo will leave City at the end of June when his four-year contract expires as even though the Robins detailed in their released list last week that the 21-year-old has been offered a new deal, it’s to enable compensation rather than presenting any credible route for him to stay at Ashton Gate.
According to Foot Mercato, Burnley are interested in signing Massengo this summer with manager Vincent Kompany having attended Auxerre’s Ligue 1 encounter with PSG on May 21, while the midfielder’s former coach at Monaco and mentor Thierry Henry worked with Kompany in the Belgium set-up.
Massengo also has further interest in the Championship, France and the Bundesliga, but City’s preference is that the midfielder remains contracted to an English club.
Because Massengo is under the age of 24, and has been offered a new contract, the Robins will qualify for compensation. How much that payment will prove to be falls on a number of factors, but fundamental to it will be the relevant body that calculates it.
Should the France Under-21 international return to his homeland or move to a club in Germany - as examples - then he would fall under the umbrella of FIFA, which makes an all-encompassing calculation based on age, playing time and how long they’ve been at a club and essentially exists to help clubs cover the cost of training the player.
As FIFA regulations state: “If the former club does not offer the player a contract, no training compensation is payable unless the former club can justify that it is entitled to such compensation. The former club must offer the player a contract in writing via registered post at least 60 days before the expiry of his current contract.
“Such an offer shall furthermore be at least of an equivalent value to the current contract. This provision is without prejudice to the right to training compensation of the player’s previous club(s).”
However, should he sign for an English club then the fee is the jurisdiction of the Professional Football Compensation Committee (PFCC) - including appointees from the Premier League, EFL, PFA and LMA - which makes for a more nuanced ruling which does take into account far more factors around market value, status of the respective, the value of the contract offered and potential future playing time. City will be required to present what they believe is Massengo’s market value, the club he has signed for will also present a figure and then an agreement can be met, or it will go to a hearing.
Dan Chapman is a partner and Head of Sport and Employment at Leathes Prior Solicitors and works with clubs and agents on compensation agreements. He told Bristol Live: “Whether or not that regime (FIFA) is more generous or not than the domestic compensation system turns on the facts in each case - but what is a certainty in each instance, is that the FIFA regime works on the basis of a fixed fee which is payable, and it does not provide for any contingent fees to be payable in the future.
“For Massengo, I have no doubt that Bristol City would be financially better off if the player stays in England. Under the FIFA system, compensation will be approximately in the region of €300,000 (£260,000). Under a PFCC ruling, one could expect Bristol City to be awarded not just substantially more compensation up-front, but also the benefit of future contingent payments.”
At the highest end of that scale to date, in 2019, Fulham received £1.5m in compensation from Liverpool for signing Harvey Elliott when he was out of contract, but have since been provided with a further £2.8m in contingent sums due to the fact he was 16 at the time, and the decision took into account how much it was projected he could play for the Reds.
An example from the other side of the matter would be Joe Aribo’s move from Charlton Athletic to Rangers whereby the Scottish Premiership club paid the Addicks just £300,000 for the 22-year-old as his contract expired and he moved to Ibrox. Had he stayed in the English pyramid that fee would have been significantly higher.
It therefore remains very much in City’s interests for Burnley’s, or anyone else based in England, interest to be concrete although with Massengo having run his contract down, his destiny is largely out of their hands.
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