A player you loan out does not stop being your asset. If the club borrowing him wins a competition or is paid for qualifying for one, and your player helped them do it, a share of that money can come back to you.
The short version
Loaning a good player to a club where he will actually play can earn you money, raise his value, and cost you nothing but his absence. A player on your bench earns you nothing at all.
Why this exists
Most squads carry players who are good enough to matter somewhere but not good enough to start here. The usual answer is to sell them, which turns a developing asset into a one-off payment and ends your interest in him completely.
A loan is the other answer. He goes somewhere he will play every week, he develops, his value rises — and if the club borrowing him succeeds partly because of him, you are paid a share of that success.
It is meant to work for both sides. The borrowing club strengthens a squad without paying a transfer fee up front; the parent club keeps a valuable player working as an asset while he is playing somewhere else.
When a parent club gets paid
Two things have to happen. The club borrowing your player has to receive money — either by winning a competition, or by being paid a qualification reward for reaching one. And your player has to have contributed to it.
If the borrowing club earns nothing, there is nothing to share. If your player sat on their bench all season, there is nothing to share either.
It is not a fixed percentage
There is no flat cut. What comes back to you is worked out from what the player actually did for the borrowing club, so the same loan can be worth very different amounts depending on how much he played and how well.
What the calculation can take into account
The share is built from the player's real contribution rather than a flat rate. The factors that can be considered include:
Contribution factors
- The player's overall rating and value.
- Matches played during the competition.
- Minutes played — a substitute who plays ten minutes has not carried the same load as a player who finished every match.
- Starting appearances versus appearances from the bench.
- Match performance ratings across the competition.
- Goals, assists, clean sheets and other contributions appropriate to his position — a goalkeeper is not judged on goals.
- His contribution relative to the rest of the squad: a 75-rated player in a squad averaging 70 is carrying more than the same player in a squad averaging 80.
- The total prize or qualification reward the borrowing club earned.
An example
Say your squad averages 70 and you loan out a 75-rated player to a club in the same range. He is immediately one of their better players. If he starts regularly, plays most of the minutes, and the club goes on to win prize money or qualify for a tournament, his parent club — you — may receive a share of what they earned.
The same player, loaned to a club that barely uses him, produces little or nothing. The reward follows the football, not the paperwork.
What this means for your squad
If you have talented players who are not getting enough playing time, you do not have to sell them. Loan them somewhere they will play, let them develop, and let their success create value for you.
And if you are the borrowing club, a loan is a way to strengthen the squad now without spending what an outright purchase would cost.
Do not leave good players on the bench
Loan them out, let them compete, and allow their success to create value for your club.