Why Queen of the South celebrated Lyndon Dykes as their record breaking sale
Exploring his career journey and explaining FIFA solidarity payments
On Monday, Queen of the South revealed that the 2019 sale of Lyndon Dykes was - only now - the highest transfer fee they’ve ever received.
They did not elaborate why that was, and given he has now played for three clubs since he left Dumfries for a final time in 2019, the answer isn’t an obvious one.
A brief history of Dykes career now follows, before an explanation of FIFA’s solidarity mechanism in transfer fees, and how these payments have risen over 200% in recent years.
AUSTRALIA TO SCOTLAND…TWICE
Lyndon John Dykes was born and raised in Australia to parents hailing from Dumfries. Lyndon lived in Australia for first 19 years of his life before moving to Scotland to sign for the Doonhamers. Remarkably, Dykes didn’t start playing football until he was around 13 years old, preferring instead Rugby League and Aussie rules. In 2019, when asked about a possible call-up to the Scotland national team, Dykes stated:
“My parents are Scottish. They are from Dumfries. My dad is from just outside Dumfries, a small town called Moniaive. I have got all my family in Scotland. I have got Scottish blood. I would have to see if I ever got the opportunity.”
He first joined QOS in 2014 as part of their under 20s team, playing around 15 matches before returning to Australia in January 2015. Eighteen months later he returned to Scotland to sign for Queens again in June 2016, four months short of his 21st birthday.
After a successful spell in Dumfries - alongside the legendary Stephen Dobbie - Dykes signed for Livingston in the January transfer window in 2019 (remaining on loan to Queen of the South before joining Livi permanently that summer). As is the norm, the transfer fee was not revealed, but we can expect it to be a modest fee, well under £100,000.
THE FIRST LIVINGSTON SELL-ON CLAUSE
After a successful 18 months in West Lothian, Livingston sold Dykes to Queens Park Rangers in August 2020, for what was reported at the time to be £2million. However the then Livingston CEO John Ward stated:
“I’ve seen £2 million being bandied about, but our share of that will be less than half in terms of an up front payment. Queen of the South will also be due a cut of that money as well, that’s the way it’s structured. There are some nice incentives if QPR are promoted or if he plays for Scotland and appearances and stuff. It’s a really well structured deal in terms of add ons and future opportunities. Whatever the final fee is, I think we get about 60 per cent of it.”
After the Livingston-QPR transfer was announced, Queen of the South stated they would be due a six figure fee as part of the deal. Assuming QOS inserted around a 5-10% sell on clause, when selling him to Livingston, then the QPR purchase would be worth anywhere from £100k-£200k to Queen of the South.
This six figure fee was absolutely critical to Queen of the South, to the point it allowed them to continue to operate as a full-time club during the covid-pandemic, with the club remarking that:
“We were significantly boosted shortly after the year end when Lyndon Dykes was sold to Queen’s Park Rangers by Livingston and called up to the Scotland squad. Clauses included in the deal when he moved to Livingston saw the club entitled to receive a significant six figure sum as a result, and this allowed us to keep the club playing full-time football behind closed doors, even before later significant government support was announced at Christmas.”
The most interesting part of that same 2020 statement was Queen of the South stating that the Dykes deal had the potential of being a new club record fee received - as it could eventually eclipse the £250,000 they received when selling Andy Thomson to Southend in 1994. We therefore know that in 2020, both the original fee from his sale to Livingston plus the sell on clause from his move to Queen’s Park totalled less than £250,000 - but the clauses inserted allowed for further monies to be received in later years.
So how is it their record sale now, five years later?
FIFA SOLIDARITY MECHANISM
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