FIFA's Paris finance house to steer transfer cash to clubs

ZURICH (AP) - French financial regulators cleared FIFA to start processing hundreds of millions of dollars from transfer fees owed to smaller clubs who nurture players, soccer's world body said Thursday.

The FIFA Clearing House is a long-standing project now based in Paris to help clubs get their rightful share of future transfer fees involving players they developed.

FIFA believes only around $70-80 million has been distributed each year to players' former clubs instead of the $400 million that is due. In many cases, smaller clubs were not aware of how to claim money in a part of the global transfer system designed to help them.

'œTo help remedy this, the (Clearing House) will ensure that training compensation and solidarity payments are made to the clubs who deserve them,'ť FIFA said in a statement.

FIFA also aims to promote financial transparency and integrity in the often murky global transfer market worth billions of dollars each year.

A French financial supervision agency has now granted FIFA a license to handle and distribute payments, the soccer body said.

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