On July 12, Clement Lenglet paid his €35.9 million release clause to leave Sevilla FC and join FC Barcelona. Sevilla previously paid €5 million to AS Nancy to sign Lenglet in 2017.
As part of that previous agreement, AS Nancy has stated that Sevilla FC owes them 10 percent of any future transfer fee for Lenglet. Sevilla maintains that the €35.9 million paid by Lenglet does not constitute a transfer fee as the player paid for his release, and therefore Sevilla FC does not owe AS Nancy anything. Article 21 of FIFA's Regulations on the Status of Transfers of Players allows teams that have contributed in a player's training to receive a portion of the compensation paid for the player in instances where the player is transferred before the end of his contract.
However, Article 21 contains no explicit definition as to what is considered a "transfer" so it is therefore open to interpretation. Sevilla experienced a very similar situation in 2008. In that instance, FIFA believed that a transfer fee was owed to the player's previous club, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport overruled and determined no such fee was due.
