Kane could just leave Spurs, that is, according to Webster
By Peter J Arnold
The famous Sun tabloid that likes to stir the pot has stated that our Kane can leave (technically) by buying himself out of his contract using the Webster Ruling.
So, before we go on, what is the “Webster Ruling”? Any player who has signed a contract before the age of 28 (and Kane has just turned that age) can buy himself out of the contract three years after the deal was signed. If he is 28 or older, the time limit is shortened to two years.
So, who is Webster?
Andy Webster was a Scottish international. The Court of Arbitration for Sport had issued a landmark ruling that means no players can be held to their contracts for more than three years. That comes down to two years for players who join clubs or renew their contracts after their 28th birthday. All this came about when Webster brought a test case after he had resigned from Heart of Midlothian for Wigan Athletic in May 2006. He had spent three years of a four-year contract with Heart. By doing this, he became the first player to invoke article 17 of Fifa’s transfer regulations.
Hearts were awarded £625,000, but the Scottish club sought £4.6m, which they believed was the actual player’s value and challenged Fifa’s verdict at CAS. The court then went on to revise the compensation figure downwards to £150,000, which was the value of the remaining term of his contract when he went to Wigan. The CAS rejected Hearts’ claim that the cost of replacing Webster should be a defining factor in the amount of compensation due. It went on and further disallowed the club’s suggestion that commercial rather than basic employment values attached to football players’ contracts should be primary.
Hearts ineffectively maintained that their progress of Webster into a global player after he arrived for £75,000 from Arbroath in 2001 should be taken into account. So, that is Webster’s ruling.
Therefore the Sun were right when they said that Harry Kane could technically buy himself out of his contract.
Also, and added to the situation, Kane had informed the club of his wish to leave way back in May, but Daniel has stood sted fast and has said they will not sell him.
Harry Kane signed his six-year contract in 2018 at the age of 24. This means that he has now served over three years of his contract.
The report also adds that it is possible that Daniel Levy or the club would sue if he tried to enforce Article 17.
My thoughts
Even though this ruling exists, I can not see Kane going down this road. It could backfire and cause an ugly stink. But we do not know how determined Kane is or how forcibly Daniel will dig into his position of not selling or only selling if he can milk the ones who want to buy him. To Tottenham, Kane is not just a great player, but also a cash cow (if they are forced to sell him). They raised him, nurtured him, and turned him into the player he is today; therefore, they would rightly want their just rewards if the issue is forced.
At the beginning of all this saga, I believed that Daniel would not sell him; however, I am starting to doubt that now.
By Peter J Arnold
My name is Peter, and I have just joined this wonderful Spurs website, and I am looking forward to writing down my football thoughts and then presenting them to you. Agree or disagree; all views are valid and should be respected.
It was the famous philosopher Voltaire who said, “I might not agree with you, however, I will defend your right to say it”. Free speech. I am a journalist by trade for a local news outlet. I’ve been a Spurs supporter since the 90s.