We were looking for a Striker in the winter window, and had a €1m budget for the transfer.

However, a top striker, who’d normally cost €3M became available for €1.25m which was still €250k above our budget. 5 days after, we realized that a player, who we sold 3 years ago, triggered a 250K contingency, which we could have used to purchase the top striker.

If we had better payment tracking, we could’ve signed our dream player.

Sporting Director,  Ligue 1 Club

We sold a player to another PL club with a contingency of £500k, when they’d make 30 PL appearances.

He played 15 games in PL, but the club were relegated. We changed the person, who was tracking the contingencies in Excel for us, and as the club now played Championship, the new person didn’t track this player anymore.

2 years later, we realized this club owed us £500k, because they were promoted to PL again, the player had now made 30 appearances.

Director of Football Operations, Premier League Club

We have a big excel sheet with all the clauses for all the contingencies we have to track.

It is very time consuming to check Transfermarkt, follow all the different data points for our ex players related to contingencies.

The process is also very error-prone. Contingencies are more and more complicated, which makes it possible for us to make mistakes. And mistakes can be very expensive.

Financial Controller,  Bundesliga Club