Feyenoord has won an arbitration case against FC Utrecht regarding various youth transfers. The arbitration committee has ruled on this, reports journalist Tom Knipping of Football InternationalThe Rotterdammers do not have to pay invoices sent to them totaling 520 thousand euros for taking over youth players.

Feyenoord and Utrecht are at loggerheads over a conflict over youth transfers. The clubs are arguing about the so-called gentlemen's agreement from 2018 that prohibited top clubs from approaching each other's talents.

In the summer of 2023, Feyenoord took over three youth players from the Domstedelinge. They were the now fifteen-year-old Boaz Plantinga, Finn Baks (also now 15) and Zakaria Ouaissa (now 10).

In a 2018 gentlemen's agreement, clubs agreed on the one hand not to actively approach each other's talents, and on the other hand to provide compensation if this did happen.

FC Utrecht sent an invoice of 520 thousand euros to Feyenoord and referred to the gentlemen's agreement. However, the Rotterdammers refused to open their wallets and paid only 244 thousand euros according to the KNVB regulations.

“FC Utrecht is playing the victim,” Feyenoord said during the hearing last month. “Internally, we can’t always absorb the loss of talent, so we scout elsewhere. FC Utrecht does that too. For example, by getting talent from FC Dordrecht, Telstar and Vitesse. It’s eat and be eaten. FC Utrecht wants to eat, but not be eaten.”

Thijs van Es, the general manager of FC Utrecht, called Feyenoord 'egocentric' and also said that the club has 'done everything in recent years to undermine the agreements'.

The arbitration committee published its verdict on Wednesday and wrote, among other things, that the gentlemen's agreement is intended to bring about a change in behavior and that Feyenoord has violated the agreement. However, the arbitration committee also concluded that the gentlemen's agreement should be seen as a moral agreement that is legally non-binding and unenforceable.

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