The drama over solidarity payments for West Ham United striker Niklas Füllkrug appears to have finally been resolved.
That’s at least according to SportBILD, who report that TuS Ricklingen are still waiting for €30,000 from West Ham as part of FIFA’s Solidarity Mechanism.
The newspaper explains that the dispute surrounding the striker’s move is now nearing an end, and it’s disappointment for the German district league club.
They had been hoping to receive €67,000 as part of Füllkrug’s move to West Ham but will now get just €30,000 instead.
FIFA’s Clearing House (FCH) in Paris, which is responsible for international transfers, has calculated the solidarity contribution and passed this to the DFB, who passed it the Lower Saxony Football Association (NFV), who forwarded it to Ricklingen on 27th January.
They, though, claimed that they never received it, leading to the previous reports and them appointing sports lawyer Gregor Reiter to look into the matter.
Following that report on the matter, the DFB have now clarified that the sum of just under €30,000 will be paid by West Ham to Ricklingen in four annual instalments of £7,461,47 each.
The various authorities have had to do some complicated math as Ricklingen were due 5% of his West Ham transfer fee but were only due it from his 12th birthday. Füllkrug was born on February 9th, 1993, and left Ricklingen, his youth club, at the end of 2005. Therefore, he only spent five eligible months at the club.
Thus, that is what they are receiving and not the original sum they had hoped for. However, the first instalment is yet to be paid as further documents need to be submitted to FIFA for that to happen.
There is, though, a finish line in sight and Ricklingen will be receiving something, which at this point is better than nothing at all.
