Explained: how football decides homegrown status and pays sell-on fees

BBC Sport's regular Ask Me Anything feature has addressed two recurring questions in English football administration: how homegrown player status is determined and how sell-on fees are settled after a transfer.

Homegrown status

Regardless of nationality or age, a player qualifies as homegrown if they were affiliated with an English or Welsh club for three full seasons, or 36 months, before turning 21 — or were registered as such before the end of the season in which they turn 21. Chelsea's Brazilian forward Joao Pedro, born in Sao Paulo, illustrates this: he joined Watford in January 2020 at age 18.

These rules differ from Uefa's, which only count a player's qualifying years between the ages of 15 and 21, whereas the Premier League's counting period starts much earlier.

A contrasting case is Eric Dier, who despite being English, having played for England and having lived in England, was not classed as homegrown because he completed his football education in Portugal and spent fewer than three years at English clubs before turning 21. Conversely, Noni Madueke is classed as homegrown even though he spent ages 16 to 20 at PSV Eindhoven, because he had already spent around seven years in academy football at Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur beforehand. Liverpool's Jeremie Frimpong, born in Amsterdam and a Netherlands international, also qualifies as homegrown due to nine years spent in Manchester City's academy between 2010 and 2019.

Sell-on fees

Sell-on fees are usually calculated only on the profit made from a transfer. If Club A sells a player to Club B for £5m, and Club B later sells him to Club C for £20m, the profit is £15m, meaning a 10% sell-on clause would be worth £1.5m to Club A. This fee is generally paid in line with the transfer's own payment schedule — if Club C pays the £20m in instalments, Club B pays the sell-on fee to Club A in matching instalments, only once it has itself been paid. However, this is only a general rule: the original contract could specify the fee be paid in full upfront, or Club A could negotiate immediate payment in exchange for accepting a somewhat lower amount.