SV Wilhelmshaven, currently struggling in the 4th division Regionalliga Nord, has become somewhat of an international celebrity. They’ve been struggling against relegation for several seasons, and indeed would have been dumped last season. Except VfB Lübeck and SC Oberneuland were forcibly relegated due to financial problems. And it’s finances again that raise it’s ugly head, albeit under somewhat different circumstances.
About 5 years ago, SVW was in trouble and tried to strengthen their club. So they signed a free agent from Argentina, Sergio Sagarzazu. He was without a team, but had previously been in the River Plate and Atletico Excurcionistas youth systems. Basically he wasn’t any good, and I’m not sure even if played more than a handful of games for Wilhelmshaven. However the Argie clubs used the FIFA statutes whereby you have to fork over “compensation for youth training”. FIFA agreed, and assessed a compensation fee of 158,000 euros – which basically would have wiped out the Wilhelmshaven budget (which is already in the red). SVW refused to pay and appealed, but of course in this case it’s a FIFA appeals court, and apparently they just turned down the appeal. Wilhelmshaven doesn’t have the money, so FIFA has ruled that they be forcibly relegated. Their only recourse would be to go through the German court system, in which case FIFA could actually try and punish the German DFB.
On the one hand, SVW is barely above water, and there’s a good chance they would go down anyway. But on the other hand, this situation shows what a ridiculous setup this “youth training” is. When a player leaves after fulfilling his contract, he should be free to leave. Especially when his current club isn’t even going to offer a contract, which was the case with Sagarazu.
My feeling is that SVW doesn’t have the money to go through real courts, so they’ll probably just let it lie and accept relegation. The FIFA ruling is just another example of it’s arrogance. Actually, instead of “youth compensation”, perhaps Wilhelmshaven should have sued the Argie clubs for doing a crap job in youth training, since the player was no good.