FC Barcelona will get a modest sum of money from a transfer that may not have been on everyone’s radar. Sergi Altimira’s transfer from Real Betis to Sporting CP has resulted in a solidarity payment due to FIFA rules, totaling 0.4 million euro, for the Catalans.
Betis will receive 18.5 million plus 2 in bonuses, with Betis giving up a right to a future sell-on percentage. Altimira spent time at La Masia as a youngster before moving to Sabadell, where he eventually made his senior debut. There were
rumors that he would return to Barcelona soon after, but he remained with Sabadell for a few more years. He then joined Getafe, and afterwards, Betis paid his release clause to get him.
FIFA’s solidarity payment rule says that when a footballer is transferred to a new club, 5% of the transfer fee must be deducted and distributed among all the clubs that trained the player between the ages of 12 and 23.
Rather than taking the split and dividing it evenly among all clubs involved in the formation of the player, the fee is split according to the number of years the player spent at each club, and the percentages change at different ages. Altimira spent roughly 6 years with Barça and 4 with Sabadell, though higher proportions of the money go to the club that helped formed him when he was older. In the end, Barcelona will take almost half of the 5% deducted from the fee, which comes out to about 0.4 million.
