Ings’ England Debut May Increase Costs

The fee that Liverpool pay for Danny Ings may rise after the former Burnley man made his global debut last night, reports the Mirror.

Or, more specifically, The Professional Football Compensation Committee (PFCC) – an ad hoc group comprised of “football people” such as club lawyers, club secretaries and essentially people that understand transfer protocol in depth.

“Ings, 23, is expected to be named on the substitutes’ bench in Vilnius for England’s final Euro 2016 qualifier after overcoming an ankle knock to prove his fitness”, Ogden writes.

Ings boasts 13 caps at England U21 level and could make his first-team debut tonight against Lithuania.

The eventual fee is likely to be a record set by a tribunal, with the current highest fee being the £6.5m Chelsea were made to pay Manchester City in 2009 for Daniel Sturridge, who is now Ings’ strike partner at Liverpool.

The Clarets regard that as a significant precedent, and will claim that Ings was a proven Premier League goalscorer when he left Turf Moor, and Sturridge wasn’t, meaning they should receive upward of that fee.

How does a tribunal work? It is usually composed of people from within the game with legal experience or have previously handed contracts and transfers, such as lawyers or club secretaries.

The Reds were busy this summer as they brought in a number of new faces, and it will surely be questioned whether the eventual Ings fee could have been used to secure a more stellar name.

The valuation that the tribunal determines is non-negotiable, as the player will have already changed clubs, so there is no right of appeal once a figure is reached.