Release clauses — they’re worth explaining.
This is because, while they’re not totally new in the world of football transfers, they are much more common in La Liga than in the Premier League — and the rules around them in Spain are a little different to how some imagine.
So in the context of transfer interest in several players and their release clauses — including Liverpool’s pursuit of Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi — here we’ll take a look at a few key questions to help break down how they work in the Spanish top-flight.
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Does every player have one?
Pretty much, yes. They are not mandatory in Spain — but the law certainly makes them desirable.
Essentially, Spain’s employment law gives each player the right to (in theory) break their contract at any time to join a new club. The player’s original team would still be due a fee — but that would be determined through a third-party valuation established in courts that deal with labour disputes. That process would likely take some time and the fee decided on might not reflect the ‘selling’ club’s valuation.
Inserting a release clause in a player’s contract means no such situation could arise.
They are agreed between a player (or their agent) and a club during contract negotiations. Some are monstrously high; Vinicius Junior and Lamine Yamal are among several La Liga stars with a €1billion (£856m; $1.1bn) release clause, for example.
Others are more modest. Barcelona have spent much of the summer looking at Nico Williams’ €60million release clause — which was agreed in his last contract renewal with Athletic Bilbao. That fee is seemingly out of reach for Barca this summer and Williams looks set to stay at Athletic for at least another season.
Back in April, Barca’s 17-year-old central defender Pau Cubarsi still had a €10million release clause in his contract — a standard figure among La Masia talents. His renewal in May raised it to €500m.
How are they triggered?
The Athletic has previously written in depth about the rise of release clauses (as well as buy-back options) in the football business. Jordan Campbell’s piece from last year includes the following handy definition: a transfer-release clause is a specific contractual provision that, if triggered by a club, allows the player to speak to them with the view to concluding a transfer.
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But in Spain, contrary to what you might think, if a buying club meets a player’s release clause, they are not actually the ones who hand over the money — not in the first instance at least. Nor does it go straight to the selling club.
Instead, it is the player — or a legal representative acting on their behalf — who performs this role. They receive the money from the buying club, before delivering it to La Liga’s central offices in Madrid, who then distribute the money.
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A leading agent working in Spain, who preferred to speak anonymously to protect their position, says the figure “has to be paid by the player because it appears in the contract between the player and the club”.
“Because it is a unilateral termination,” they add, “it is paid in a single instalment by the player. But the player is given the money by the new club first, of course.”
So clubs have to pay one lump sum?
That’s right. This is a key point because often football transfer fees are spread out in instalments over several years. You can’t do that when matching a La Liga release clause. The buying club is committing instead to paying it all immediately in one go.
Why might a buying club offer more than the release clause?
It could happen in certain situations.
This is purely speculative, but imagine a situation in which a buying club might want to offer, say, €10million more than a €30m release clause. It might seem counter-intuitive, but this way the club might end up paying €40m over a longer period, instead of a one-off chunky sum, which could be more manageable financially.
A selling club in La Liga might prefer to have a large up-front cash payment, but they might equally be tempted to secure more money over the longer term, especially if they were not planning to immediately reinvest funds.
Real Sociedad’s sale of Antoine Griezmann to Atletico Madrid in 2014 provides another interesting case study.
Atletico signed the Frenchman for a fee close to his €30million release clause, but the deal also included a sell-on clause that brought in a further €24m when Griezmann left Atleti for Barcelona in 2019.
The agent we spoke to for this story put it like this: “If you realise that a player’s release clause is €60million and a club comes in to pay €70m, it’s not because they are very kind, it’s because they want to get a good deal.”
(Top photo: Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
