A clause in Ethan Ampadu’s contract has been revealed by the CEO of Exeter City and it could soon be triggered.
Leeds United are on the cusp of Premier League promotion and could have it secured by Monday.
Victories against Middlesbrough and Preston saw Daniel Farke’s side move back to the top of the Championship table last weekend.
Meanwhile, Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United completely collapsed as they lost to bottom side Plymouth Argyle for their third defeat in a row.
That puts a five-point gap between the Yorkshire rivals and Leeds can secure promotion on Easter Weekend if they better the Blades’ point tally over the two fixtures.
Should they return to the Premier League, then Exeter City will receive another payment for Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu, their CEO has revealed.
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The CEO of Exeter City, Joe Gorman, says that his club will be owed an additional payment for Ampadu should Leeds go up, despite him leaving in 2017.
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Speaking on Business of Sport, Gorman said: “The last 11 years we’ve invested £5m pounds into our academy but that’s generated us £20m in player sales.
“The bit that I love is that I think it’s 46% of it is up-front fees. So we’ll sell a player, use Jay Stansfield as an example.
“Sold him as 15 for six figures, he played 10 times for Fulham before he got sold and we got another six figure in and then obviously Birmingham buy him and we’ve got a decent 20% sell-on on that.
“What we’re quite good at is putting contingents in, so if you play 10 games, we’ll get 50 grand. You play an international appearance, we get X. We would normally take a lower fee for more contingents.
“I remember one of the first conversations I had with Arran Pugh, our academy director, how do you develop players for the first team? He’s like, ‘we don’t, we develop Premier League players.’
“Kind of clicks in your mind, I get it now. The Exeter City first team is just a step on their journey, you can name them.
“Ollie Watkins, Ethan Ampadu, if Leeds get promoted this season, we get an amount of money. The only time it ends if he were to leave on a free transfer.”
How much Leeds United paid for Ethan Ampadu
Leeds paid £7m plus add-ons to secure the services of Ampadu in 2023 but they didn’t sign him from Exeter, but from Chelsea.
Ampadu began his career at Exeter – making his senior debut when he was just 15 – and his talent was spotted by Chelsea, who signed him on a free transfer when his contract expired in 2017.
However, as he was younger than 24 at the time of the move, Exter were still owed a compensational fee.
Negotiations didn’t go well between the clubs and a tribunal was required, with the Professional Football Compensation Committee finally making their decision in April 2018.
In a statement, Exeter said they were ‘disappointed by the verdict’ as they were paid a total package of up to £2.5m, made up of a £1.3m guaranteed transfer fee, a further £1.25m in appearance-related extras and a 20% sell-on clause.
It’s not completely clear how Exeter will still earn money from Ampadu eight years on from his departure and subsequent move to Elland Road or if Leeds will be the ones who have to pay.