For the financial year 2022-23, Maidenhead United – of the National League, English football’s fifth tier – recorded an annual turnover of £1.8 million. They ultimately ended up losing around £270,000 for the year, such are the financial challenges of operating a non-league club without a wealthy benefactor in the background.
But if a club is able to get their hands on a talented youngster, there’s a way they can benefit further down the line – without having to do anything at all. When Maidenhead sold Max Kilman to Wolves in 2018, they received around £40,000 as a transfer fee – a welcome injection, for sure, but not enough to sustain a National League club financially.
But the club’s chairman, Peter Griffin (not that one, Family Guy fans), was savvy: he inserted a 20% sell-on clause within the transfer – meaning that Maidenhead would get another payday later down the line if Wolves sold Kilman on. Well, in July 2024, their wildest dreams came true. The Midland side accepted an offer of £40 million from West Ham for the defender – meaning that Maidenhead would receive £8 million thanks to that sell-on fee.
It transpired that as part of the negotiations between Wolves and the Hammers, Maidenhead were contacted and agreed to cut the sell-on clause to 10% so that the deal would go ahead. But still: the National League side received £4 million as a lump payment, more than doubling their annual revenue in one single transaction; and one in which they played next to no part. Griffin commented:
This is a fantastic outcome for club which will benefit from one of the largest, if not the largest, transfer payments an English non-league club has ever received.
This is a momentous day for Maidenhead United FC, which gives us the opportunity to profoundly change the future of the club.
Reds Reward
It’s not just non-league clubs that can benefit from a sell-on clause as part of transfer negotiations. When Liverpool signed then 20-year-old Dominic Solanke for around £3 million in 2017, they captured a player with outstanding potential that had yet been realised. The striker never really settled at Anfield, and after making 21 appearances across a season-and-a-half, he was sold to Bournemouth in January 2019 for £19 million.
Profit for Liverpool then, but that wasn’t the end of it. They had the good sense to include a sell-on clause as part of the deal – sensing that, if Solanke did fulfil his potential, he may secure a lucrative transfer from Bournemouth to pastures new. Fast forward to the summer of 2024, and that’s a scenario that looked likely to play out. Solanke, with 19 Premier League goals in 2023/24 and an England call-up, was a wanted man – Tottenham just one of the clubs coveting his signature.
When Liverpool sold the frontman to Bournemouth, the transfer included a series of clauses – add-ons, based upon Solanke’s performances, have increased the overall fee paid to £24 million. The Reds also inserted a 20% sell-on clause into the deal, meaning that they will bank a cut of any profit Bournemouth make if/when they sell Solanke on. With a rumoured price tag of £65 million on Solanke’s head, that means that Liverpool will net around £8.2 million on any such deal – 20% of the £41 million profit that Bournemouth would make.
Now, £8.2 million isn’t a huge amount of money to a Premier League club. But in an era of financial fair play and Profit & Sustainability Rules (PSR), it’s a pure gain that can be used to offset any losses – and remember, Liverpool didn’t have to do anything to earn it apart from sit back, relax and watch Solanke’s career take off on the south coast. As such, you can see why sell-on clauses in football transfers are such a key part of the negotiations.
The Biggest Sell-On Clauses in Football
If we consider Todd Boehly’s bull-in-a-china-shop transfer strategy since taking over as the owner of Chelsea, you might be surprised to learn that the London club has routinely been one of the most thrifty, in the past, when it comes to transfer sell-on clauses. In fact, the two biggest sell-on fees in Premier League history have both been paid into Chelsea’s coffers – with a third potentially on the horizon.
Tino Livramento
Tino Livramento is a talented youngster that didn’t quite make the grade at Stamford Bridge after coming through the academy ranks, so he was sold to Southampton for a snip of a price at £5 million. But with add-ons and a sell-on clause included in the sale, Livramento still had the potential to be valuable to Chelsea – as was proved when he joined Newcastle in the summer of 2023. The fee? £32 million, which with add-on payments included meant that the Blues netted a handsome £15 million. Nice bit of business, that.
Kevin de Bruyne
Mind you, Chelsea are no strangers to profiting from a savvy sell-on clause. They banked £10 million when Kevin de Bruyne joined Manchester City from Wolfsburg in January 2014. Would they rather have had the Belgian in their ranks? Undoubtedly, but a significant payday for a player that you’ve already sold is not to be sniffed at.
Raheem Sterling
One of the canniest sell-on clauses stipulated by a non-Premier League club goes to QPR, who trousered £8.8 million from the subsequent sale of a player that never even played a single first-team game for them! Raheem Sterling came through the academy ranks at the London club, but decided to join Liverpool as a 17-year-old. The transfer fee was only £450,000 initially, rising up to £2 million if the winger played the requisite number of games for the Merseyside club (which he duly did).
But the best was yet to come for QPR, with Sterling joining Manchester City in the summer of 2015 for a fee in the region of £44 million. With a 20% sell-on clause included in the deal, the Hoops netted a rather handsome £8.8 million – not too shabby given that he never even graced the turf at Loftus Road.
