FULHAM have been given a transfer ban and fine for breaking rules in relation to Fabio Carvalho’s £5m move to Liverpool.
The Cottagers made a payment to Carvalho’s grassroots club Balham Blazers that was triggered by the 2022 deal - despite twice being told by the Premier League that it was against the rules.
Fulham have to pay a financial penalty of £75,000 and will be banned from signing young players to their Academy for six months if they breach the same regulations again in the next year.
Carvalho, 21, is currently on loan from Liverpool at Hull, who are chasing promotion from the Championship via the play-offs.
The Portugal-born winger moved to England at the age of 11 and played for Balham until Under-12 level.
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In December 2014, he joined Fulham’s Academy and a few months later the club signed an agreement with Balham to pay certain sums depending on Carvalho’s progress.
When the winger made his first-team debut in May 2021 in a Premier League game against Southampton, it triggered one of the clauses.
Fulham were relegated at the end of the season. In October 2021, after consulting the Football Association and the EFL, they agreed a compensation deal with Balham on similar terms to the original agreement and made a payment.
After Carvalho was sold to Liverpool in May 2022 for a fee of £5m, rising to £7.7m, Balham approached Fulham about a sell-on payment under the terms of the original agreement.
Fulham had to seek permission to pay compensation because Balham did not qualify as a “transferor” club.
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Premier League Youth Development Rule 345 says clubs who are not in the PL or EFL, or who haven’t been relegated from the EFL in the last two years, are not entitled to compensation for youth players.
Under Rule U38, payments can be made only with the permission of the PL Board.
Fulham, by now back in the top flight, twice asked if they could pay Balham and were twice told no - the second time in January this year.
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But Fulham decided nonetheless to go ahead with a payment, as required by the deal with Balham.
During the case, Fulham told the PL that they had a similar deal in place with Dartford FC after bringing Martial Godo to Craven Cottage from the Kent side in 2022.
In it, Fulham agreed to pay Dartford if Godo, a winger currently on loan at League One Wigan, hit certain targets. But the PL has also refused the club permission to pay Dartford and they would be in breach of U38 if they did - triggering the six-month transfer ban if a payment was made in the next 12 months.
The same regulations left Basingstoke Town feeling short-changed when Brody Peart, then 17, joined Premier League Brighton in 2023.
Basingstoke, like Balham and Dartford, do not qualify as a “transferor club” so the Seagulls needed permission to pay compensation.
But Brighton did not ask the PL to sanction any payment and so signed Peart without having to pay a penny.