Exeter City to recieve millions from Stansfield sell-on clause

He joins Birmingham for £15m

Exeter City are set to receive a substantial sum in sell-on bonuses after Birmingham smashed the League One transfer record to sign former City youngster Jay Stansfield.

New Birmingham owner and NFL star Tom Brady laid down his intention to lift his club out of the third tier with a huge injection of cash, £15M of which was paid to Fulham for Stansfield late on transfer deadline day.

Despite no official figure being announced by either party, reports suggest that Exeter will get hold of over a million pounds as part of the deal, a figure which could rise with the overall transfer fee, dependent on Stansfield’s new side being promoted back to the Championship this season.

Having been a youth player at Exeter, after his father Adam passed away as an Exeter City player in 2010, Stansfield went on to sign for Fulham in the summer of 2019. He returned to City for an emotional loan spell in 2022 (even if it was often a little frustrating on the pitch) but it is a clause in his sale to Fulham which entitles the Grecians to such a substantial cut of his transfer fee.

In an era in which Premier League clubs collectively spend an excess of a billion pounds each year, (and there are certainly shades of similar financial risk and recklessness in Stansfield’s seven-year contract, designed to spread the cost of his massive fee out over the years up until 2031) the sum that Exeter will receive may seem insignificant in comparison.

However, for a relatively small fan owned club like Exeter it will constitute a large proportion of their annual budget, and will no doubt be reinvested into the youth system which consistently produces the players of such a high standard whose large transfer fees reap similar financial rewards for the Grecians.

Exeter fans will have a chance to show their (now enhanced) love for Jay Stansfield as his Birmingham side travel to Exeter next Saturday to face the beneficiaries of their extravagant spending.