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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
SCORES of domestic clubs, who have produced a number of young local footballers for the foreign market, could have been prejudiced of millions of dollars through a flawed transfer system which has been flouting FIFA rules and regulations.

Aces Youth Soccer Academy and Bantu Rovers have been at the forefront of this programme in recent years in which they have unleashed the likes of Knowledge Musona, Khama Billiat, Marvelous Nakamba, Kuda Mahachi and Tino Kadewere to clubs in South Africa and Europe.

But there are many others, including Premiership giants Highlanders who provided the nursery for Benjani Mwaruwari, could be in line for compensation worth millions of dollars for their part in the development of players who were then traded to foreign clubs.

Even some predominantly amateur clubs across the country, who nurtured the likes of Warriors forward Evans Rusike before his move to South Africa, are also in line for a hefty compensation package.

A South African agency has already started work on the programme to try to identify the various clubs in that country who could be liable for compensation after they were prejudiced of millions of rand in transfers.

Benjani, the former Warriors skipper, was a youth footballer at Bosso and was involved in three high-profile multi-million-dollar transfers in France and England where he played for AJ Auxerre, Portsmouth and Manchester City.

He broke the Pompey transfer record of £4,1 million before sealing another deal, worth around £11 million, to Manchester City.

In both transfers, Bosso should have received significant compensation for their part in the development of the player but the Bulawayo giants didn’t get even a cent.

Peter Ndlovu, the greatest Warrior of all-time, left Bosso as a teenager in 1991 to join then English Premiership side Coventry City for an estimated £100 000.

But the country’s oldest football club should also have received payments for his subsequent moves to Birmingham City and Sheffield United.

FIFA revealed last week that scores of football clubs around the world, with most of them based in Africa and Latin America, have been missing out on transfer compensation of around US$300 million for their part in the raising of the young players before they exploded on the big scene.

The FIFA rules and regulations stipulate that the club where a player began his career should receive a percentage of the transfer fee every time the footballer is transferred from one foreign football club to the other.

Although clubs usually receive a transfer fee when a player moves to a foreign team, they don’t usually get anything when the same player moves between those foreign clubs.

The FIFA rules say such payments should be handed to the original club every time, be in five or six times, that professional footballer is traded among clubs.

About US$300 million has somehow not been remitted to these clubs.

“There is around US$300 million that somehow has not made it to the clubs who have trained the players,” Kimberly Morris, a FIFA official who oversees the transfer system, said during a football law conference on Friday.

“We know the system is too complicated, we know there is a poor record of the history of many players.”

The head of the umbrella organisation for Cameroon’s top-flight clubs told the conference that payments could often take years.

“Procedures are too long and there is no penalty when payment is late,” said Franck Happi according to a Reuters report. “We can wait two years to receive 5 000 euros.”

Reuters said FIFA were working on wide-ranging reforms to the transfer system and have said that one of the aims is to improve so-called training compensation and solidarity payments.

The FIFA Council have already approved the creation of a clearing house to process international transfers.

FIFA’s head of professional football, Giancarlo Dapoto, said the amount paid in training compensation was dwarfed by the money paid in agents’ fees.

According to Reuters, last year, US$548 million (A$767.14 million) was paid on agents commission from international transfers, compared to US$90 million (A$125.99 million) to clubs in training compensation.

“There are issues with the current system that needs to be renewed to find a simpler framework and ensure the mechanism is effective,” he said.

Aces Youth Soccer Academy founder, Nigel Munyati, said his club would welcome such backdated payments for the investment they put into the game.

“That will be welcome news, for real, because we have spent a fortune in our project and the returns have not matches what we have invested,’’ he told The Herald.

“We have signed some contracts where we received a payment, in the event the player moved between foreign clubs for the first time, because we had a sell-on clause, but we never knew that we should get payment every time a player who came through our ranks moved to another club.

“We salute FIFA for these developments, which show they really appreciate the work that we are doing to keep this industry alive, and we should also get some benefits from what we are doing.

“It’s very difficult to develop a player and it is an expensive exercise and, hopefully, we will get what we deserve and all this will be done quickly.’’