Newcastle seek legal advice over multiple player compensation claims

Newcastle Falcons have taken legal advice in a bid to end a 10-month wait for five-figure compensation for losing Academy talent that Steve Diamond, the director of rugby, says is due from Saracens and Bath, with Gloucester the latest club to be added to the list.

Guy Pepper’s move to Bath and Saracens signing of Phil Brantingham and Louie Johnson saw a request for compensation sent by the club to the Rugby Football Union, Premier Rugby and the Rugby Players’ Association, who oversee the process when academy players move clubs.

However, the length of time it has already taken to try and receive compensation has forced Newcastle, who are desperate to find new investors, to seek legal advice to try and speed up a process that is going to now include Ben Redshaw’s move to Gloucester.

Diamond, whose bottom-of-the-table club head to leaders Bath at the weekend, could use any money received to bolster new contract offers to players he cannot afford to lose at the end of this season, including captain Callum Chick, who is wanted by two other Premiership clubs.

Diamond said: “We have a player at the moment who is 18 years old, and two clubs have come in for him. They have to ask permission to speak to our academy player, and we have offered him a contract, and it then drops into he realms of the compensation areas.

“Phil Brantingham and Guy Pepper left the club 10 months ago, and their compensation claims still haven’t been put on the desk by the RFU. That is unlike me, who, within 24 hours, receives his notice for comments I made.

“There is a willingness to do some things quickly and expedite discipline, but when it comes to the crux of the professional game, then this is where they are out of their depth. The processes in place guard against other clubs stealing players at a young age through compensation.

”The mathematics work like this; there is an amount of money, so let’s say we have had them for three years, then there is an amount per year. If a club asks permission (to speak to them) and we have offered them a contract, and that club speaks to them after March, there will be an amount of commission that they will be aware of. If they speak to them before (March) – which they all do and I have evidence of that happening – then there is another amount payable, which is not insignificant.

“The compensation rules are put together by a combination of the RFU, Premier Rugby and the RPA and whenever there is conflict, it goes awry. Compensation is important for the club’s finances, and we need a decision on that – we can’t wait 10 months.

“We now have Ben Redshaw going to Gloucester, and they will have to pay the compensation. They all try and wriggle around it, and that is why we need everyone to sit down and say this is right or this is not right, or else it will be a free-for-all.

“We have a legal team working on this, and it is costing money – there is a lot depending on it. If we put all the hard work into developing these youngsters and then, at 20, are snapped up, then that’s not fair or right and not why the academy regions were put together for. It is five five-figure (compensation) sum we are looking at.”