Craig Brown seeks greater compensation for loss of young talent like Ryan Fraser

Published on 11/12/2012 00:00

ABERDEEN manager Craig Brown has appealed to Fifa to increase the compensation fees payable to clubs who lose their best young talent.

Brown spoke out after 18-year-old winger Ryan Fraser rejected a contract offer and indicated his desire to move on after playing just two full games for the club.

Aberdeen have already lost Scotland under-19 defender Jack Grimmer and Scotland under-21 international Fraser Fyvie this year.

Grimmer left for Fulham for a reported fee of £200,000 and 19-year-old Fyvie signed for Wigan in the summer after refusing to extend his contract beyond December.

Last year Scotland international Chris Maguire signed for Derby on expiry of his contract, with the clubs agreeing a fee to prevent a Fifa tribunal.

And Brown believes that the price of young Scottish talent is far too cheap for cash-rich English clubs.

“It will happen again for sure,” said Brown, whose team face Motherwell in a William Hill Scottish Cup fifth-round replay at Fir Park tonight.

“If we could stop it happening we would stop it.

“My decision to stop it is at Fifa level. The compensation should be far, far more.

“The English clubs can take a gamble on them and make the boys starry-eyed with a bigger wage.

“If they had to pay compensation commensurate to a transfer fee it would act as a bit of a 
deterrent. It wouldn’t stop them because, I keep saying this on Celtic’s behalf, it’s an uneven playing field in Europe.

“They get a couple of million from television and the top clubs in the English Premier League get £67 million.

“If they have £67 million from television they can gamble a couple of quid on a young player.

“If compensation was higher they would maybe think twice and we would get commensurate recompense to the work we put into that boy. When you think of the work put into every player, I commend Neil Simpson and Neil Cooper and the staff. They put the work in and away they go.

“I appeal to Fifa. They made the rule about compensation and for that they deserve credit.

“Now review it, do an analysis and see what little players have gone for, and say ‘that was a steal, we must make it a reasonable amount’.”

The Dons have twice scored last-gasp equalisers against Motherwell this season and Brown today prepared his side for a penalty shoot-out as they bid to secure a trip to Easter Road to face Hibs in the fifth round.

“Maybe we are tempting fate but we will do some penalty-kick practice in case it gets to that stage, because we have been unfortunate in penalty deciders here,” he said.

“That is a distinct possibility in this fixture.

“I’m not a great believer in penalty practice but we’ll have a look so the lads who are going to take them have some recent practice, but there’s a big, big difference between a training ground penalty and a real 
penalty.

“It could be a long night and it could be competitive.”

But the former Motherwell manager added: “It could be an outstanding game of football because they play and we try to play.

“May the better team win on the night because we are very similar this season in everything.”