Transfers impacted by football voiding
Published:Monday | May 18, 2020 | 12:25 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
Harbour View FC general manager Clyde Juriedini says voiding the 2019-2020 domestic football season will not only decrease the value of local footballers, but also leave clubs open to ‘bargain hunters’.
However, Cavalier technical director Rudolph Speid does not think it will affect them much in their ability to negotiate contracts, but says clubs will have less money to spend on overseas transfers, forcing them to scout locally for deals until the COVID-19 pandemic passes.
The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) announced the cancellation of the 2019-2020 season and made all results from its games null and void on Friday.
Jureidini says this will affect local clubs’ bargaining ability in transfer negotiations for the foreseeable future. He says much will depend on the negotiating skills and credibility of the clubs.
“People in football respect and judge people based on statistics – that’s why people have statistics – so it must affect them,” he said. “But having said that, if I have scored 10 goals, whether it is recorded or not, you know my ability or potential to score 10 goals. So it may be that my bargaining power will be less and my value will be less, but I may still have some chance.
“So it is likely that it will be much fewer [transfers] and at a lower rate. A lot of loans or ‘freebies’ will be offered because people just can’t afford to pay. Everybody will be bargaining for little or nothing and trying to sell back our young players. [Local] clubs will be open prey for bargain hunters everywhere. So we will have to use skills and credibility to see if we can start a discussion or get an agreement under discussion and start it. So we will have to be prudent,” he said.
RESERVED SPENDING
Speid says the new financial capabilities of the overseas clubs will be a major factor in the deals they target.
“If you don’t have the talent, bargain hunters will always get the better of you,” he said. “But if you have the talent, they will pay. The only thing that will change is that some [overseas] clubs will be reserved. They will probably look locally first, before overseas, instead of bringing in someone from another country.
“It’s talent you are selling, and the more games you play, the better. But because the season has been cancelled, it doesn’t mean the player hasn’t played 50 games. The club still knows they have played 50 games, so the cancellation affects a club, but not necessarily the player,” he said.
Speid said when an interested club identifies a player they want and makes contact with a club, the transfer depends on how the club negotiates and what is required of them. So like Jureidini, he says that cases will have to be handled delicately under the circumstance.
“Because of COVID-19, clubs have less money to spend, their budget is less,” he said. “So it will be affected, but it won’t be affected any worse than how other businesses have been affected. We are probably in a better position than the normal businesses because people are buying talent. But I suspect that the value of footballers will go down in the world, generally.”