Demarai Gray has left Everton for Saudi club Al-Ettifaq for an unknown price, ending his two-year stay with the club.
There has been an ongoing conflict between the Jamaica international and manager Sean Dyche over his future, but a solution has been found, and Gray has now left the club, according to an official announcement made by the club on Thursday morning.
However, according to a report in The Telegraph (7 September), there is nothing stopping the Saudis from not paying up by a specified date.
Gray, who was in the final year of his contract at Goodison Park when he left, is said to have cost Everton about £8 million.
Football club transfers are typically paid in instalments over the course of a player’s contract, with agreed-upon payment deadlines. Those deadlines cannot be missed because all European clubs are bound by the same agreement, which states that if a payment is not completed on time, the club in issue is barred from playing domestic and European games.
This is to prevent clubs in financial difficulties from causing problems for other clubs by failing to pay them, which might have a domino effect.
Saudi clubs, on the other hand, do not fall under that criteria because they are not part of a European league, which means there are currently no laws in place if they default on payments.
This summer, the Saudi league combined for 11% of the amount paid to European clubs for transfer market players, a whopping £753 million.
That’s a lot of money committed to being paid out, and if the money runs out or the interest rate falls in the following years, there’s nothing stopping them from taking their time paying down the remaining debts.
Obviously, contracts will be in existence, and clubs will be able to enforce them in court if necessary, but Everton’s financial condition will require them to rely on collecting their money from sales on schedule and in full.
While this is obviously unlikely, the fact that the loophole exists implies that it can be abused, which would be a nightmare for Everton and any other club waiting.
In other Everton news, Dyche must make a DCL selection since the strongest XI must be determined.
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