Contract clauses are increasingly common in the world of modern football, and Liverpool developed a reputation for outfoxing their Premier League rivals while doing deals
Rivalry is taken very seriously in Liverpool, so it’s little surprise to hear the lengths the Reds went to to stitch up their Premier League opponents.
Watching one of your club’s greatest players slip on the shirt of your adversary can be heartbreaking, so Liverpool decided to get ahead of the game and extinguish any chance of it happening while finalising a couple of major deals a decade ago.
Before selling Luis Suarez to Barcelona in 2014, the Merseyside club demanded that a clause be written into the Uruguayan’s contract that prevented him from signing for Manchester United. And as if that wasn’t enough, he also wasn’t allowed to join the Red Devils on a free transfer when his contract with the Catalan giants expired.
A year earlier, Liverpool had been enraged by Arsenal’s attempts to sign Suarez for £40million plus one pound after misunderstanding his release clause and so took their revenge after securing a deal for Roberto Firmino in 2015.
While negotiating the Brazilian’s contract, Liverpool included an £89million release clause but legislated that the Gunners were the only team on the planet who couldn’t activate it.
Liverpool subsequently developed something of a habit of inserting odd but highly-beneficial clauses into contracts when conducting serious business. When Barcelona splurged £142m on Phillipe Coutinho in 2018, the Reds successfully negotiated a massive premium on their players for the next three seasons when dealing with the La Liga club.
This meant that if Barcelona wanted to sign any of their stars, they’d be forced to pay a lump sum of £89m on top of whatever fee Liverpool deemed fair for the player in question – effectively preventing Barcelona from raiding any more of their top talents.
Other whacky contract clauses include the one Brazil legend Ronaldinho demanded in his Flamengo deal after joining the club from AC Milan in 2011. The 2002 World Cup winner is one of football’s most notorious party animals and wanted it in writing that he was allowed to go out clubbing twice a week.
Elsewhere, Southampton inserted a cheeky clause into Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s contract when they sold him to Arsenal in 2011. The Saints asked for £10,000 every time the Englishman played more than 20 minutes during a match – which explains why the Gunners developed a habit of bringing him on with 15 minutes to play!
DON’T SCRAP REPLAYS! Join our petition to keep the magic of the FA Cup alive!
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.