Twist in the Tale of Celtic's Pursuit of Tony Mowbray

With Tony Mowbray having been announced as Celtic’s prime candidate for the Parkhead hotseat, and the furore surrounding rumours of Celtic talking to Mowbray before talking to the West Brom Chairman, it was inevitable that Jeremy Peace would publish a statement that would play hardball and demand the club be compensated if Mowbray was to leave for Celtic.

However, the ongoing saga took a fresh twist today as both the Scottish FA and the English FA confirmed, that if Mowbray was to resign as manager of West Brom, no compensation would be required from Celtic.

“If Tony Mowbray were to resign his position with West Bromwich Albion and then join Celtic then, as far as we are concerned, there would be no statutory requirement for Celtic to pay compensation,” SFA spokesman Rob Shorthouse confirmed.

“Mr Mowbray’s contract is not lodged with the SFA, so there is no question of compensation as far as we are concerned. West Bromwich Albion may adopt a different position but that would be our stance on the matter.”

If Mowbray were to resign from his post, a spokesperson for the FA confirmed that West Brom would not be in line for any compensation from the SPL runners-up as there is no such agreement concerning the matter between the FA and the SFA.

“There is no formal arrangement for this, as there clearly is when it comes to players making a cross-border move while under contract,” he said. “It would depend on the terms of severance in the individual manager’s contract. Usually, any money paid in these situations is to cover managers breaking their contracts rather than compensation as such. The situation is entirely contractual and depends on what the individual is obliged to do.”

With reports suggesting Mowbray has already agreed to become the new boss at Parkhead, one option for him is to buy out his contract—once he’d resigned. However, that would mean Mowbray having to pay hefty tax and national insurance payments—which Celtic would likely cover.