Niclas Füllkrug’s move to West Ham United has caused legal troubles for his former club TuS Ricklingen, who have been ‘overwhelmed’ trying to deal with the matter.
That’s according to SportBILD, who report that Füllkrug’s former club are due €67,500 from the €27m move last summer but are yet to receive it.
The newspaper explains that TuS Ricklinger, an amateur club in Hanover with around 700 members and run by volunteers, are due to receive the sum as part of FIFA’s Solidarity Scheme.
Füllkrug joined them as a four-year-old and played there for eight years and because of this, the club are entitled to a fee from West Ham. To be clear, FIFA’s solidarity mechanism only kicks in from aged 12 and does not cover years before that.
Either way, the scheme currently means they are owed €67,500 but they are yet to receive that sum from West Ham despite Füllkrug’s move happening eight months ago.
West Ham have seemingly paid their dues, but the money is currently locked in FIFA’s Clearing House (FCH) in Paris. The process to get it out takes time as they don’t differentiate between amateur and professional clubs.
TuS Ricklinger are run voluntarily by three seniors, all aged over 70 and they have become ‘hopelessly overwhelmed’ by the time and personnel intensive demands.
TuS officials initially only learned that they were owed through the media and turned to the Lower Saxony Football Association (NFV) for help. The NFC declared itself not responsible. Attempts to contact the DFB were also initially unsuccessful.
The DFB have now contacted the club to ask for a contact. Everything was going smoothly but when the FCH requested the necessary documents from TuS, they hit a snag. FCH require the commercial register certificate/foundation certificate to the bylaws and bank statements and the most recent annual financial statements, certified by an auditor.
TuS, though, are not subject to financial reporting requirements because they are only a small, registered association in Germany. The FCH have complained about incomplete documents and demanded new information regarding payments and bank details from sponsors.
Managing director Peter Schwichtenberg has refused to provide these for data protection reasons. They have now consulted with sports lawyer Gregor Reiter, who has contacted FIFA’s Head of Regulations.
He advised they contact the DFB, but they’re simply passing everything on to FIFA and the NFV, and the process starts again. It’s left TuS frustrated, with Schwichtenberg admitting they have plans for the money.
“Our energy costs are extremely high because we have a floodlight system with mercury vapor lamps instead of LED floodlights. We want to use the money to build a modern photovoltaic system on the roof,” he said.
