Hamilton places staggering fee on young player

Press, 18 April 1980, Page 4

Hamilton places staggering fee on young player

The Hamilton soccer club last evening placed a staggering fee of $2OOO on its young international striker, Michael Groom, thereby almost certainly preventing him from joining any other Rothmans League club this season.

Trans Tours United was considering signing Groom, but was waiting to hear of Hamilton’s proposition. United’s chairman (Mr Derrick Mansbridge) said last evening that his club would definitely not accept Groom on those terms.

“There is no way that the club would be able to pay a transfer fee of $2OOO. It would seem to me'that they (Hamilton) have placed a sum on his head so as to prevent other clubs from taking him,” said Mr Mansbridge. The unfortunate aspect of the case is that Hamilton appeared initially to be quite willing to let Groom go, had the player wished to move

elsewhere. The club’s senior coach, Jeff Coulshed, had said that Groom was free to leave and the player has evidently given two weeks notice to his employers. “In our opinion Hamilton has gone about this in com-, pletely the wrong manner, said Mr Mansbridge. He added that had Hamilton said, when first approached by United’s coaches, that it would not release Groom to join another league club there would have been no further negotiations. The matter would have ended. Mr Mansbridge said United was unlikely to protest to the New Zealand Football Association, unless Groom specifically said he wished to contest the fee.

The simple fact of the situation is that there is no player in New Zealand worth $2OOO. Indeed, there would have to be exceptional circumstances to warrant a fee of half that amount.