CHAIRMAN of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Technical Committee Rudolph Speid says local clubs should be vigilant in their demand for training compensation whenever their young players transfer to professional clubs overseas.

It is understood that a local Premier League club blocked one of its young players from moving to an overseas club last week because his training compensation package was incomplete.

The basic principle is that the new club must pay a training compensation package whenever a player signs his first professional contract, and each time the player transfers between clubs of two different national associations. A compensation is also payable until the end of the season of the player’s 23rd birthday.

Speid told Jamaica Observer that the demand for the country’s players is intensifying, therefore Jamaicans clubs should ensure they are properly compensated whenever these young footballers move abroad.

“You want this money for development because this is the only way that you are going to develop your club as there is no club in Jamaica that makes a profit from just normal operations, and so clubs are paid for these players,” explained Speid.

“Training compensation, as the word says, is a compensation for the money that you spent to bring the player to the level that they are at — that is why it is paid. And it must be paid because the club needs it to be able to find the next talent,” Speid said.

Speid, who is the sporting director of Premier League outfit Cavalier, pointed out that once a club enters a player on the Fifa connect system, they can claim their training compensation through that platform.

“All the JFF needs to give you is a player’s passport that is stamped by the JFF and you can use it to collect your money.

“The clubs are aware of this but some of them are just lazy. It is something that we have been asking the clubs to do because it is the system that is used to transfer players all over the world,” Speid said.

General manager of Premier League champion Harbour View FC, Clyde Jureidini says his club takes its training compensation very seriously as he believes that the club must be properly rewarded for developing their players.

“Harbour View Football Club is aware of it [training compensation] and we claim it, and we claim it when we think it is due at the appropriate time,” said Jureidini.

“Some situations are that you signed an agreement without accepting training compensation, in light of something else, and so it depends on the deal and it depends on what the circumstances are that may be agreed between the clubs,” he said.

“It is a necessary part of the business of sports and professional football that clubs like ours spend a lot of time, effort and finances in training players and developing players, therefore the clubs should get their due reward with training compensation and solidarity payments that are due from international clubs,” Jureidini stated.

The veteran club functionary reasoned that this compensation fee can run into millions of dollars, depending on the professional contract that the player signs.

“This money is reinvested within the club, both at the development [level] and for those players who are more developed and probably playing at the Premier League or other senior levels,” he said.

“In the past, most of the clubs didn’t get any money from training compensation for many different reasons, but in recent times Jamaican clubs have become much more aware of it and have claimed for it,” Jureidini ended.

Meanwhile Paul Christie, sporting director of Mount Pleasant Academy, says his club is aware of the Fifa training compensation and is taking steps to ensure that it is properly compensated whenever its players move overseas.

“There are some clubs overseas that would have signed your players but they want them for free transfers and they want your club to disassociate themselves from the player before they can engage them — and there is nothing in it to say compensation for the development of this player,” Christie said. “Now that we are aggressively moving in this direction, it is a welcoming move and we applaud it,” he said.

“At Mount Pleasant our ultimate aim is to develop the youth of Jamaica and help to guide the process of bringing them into an international formal setting and so, as it is, the training compensation means a lot to us,” Christie added.