With all that they have to endure at Elland Road these days, the news that £105,000 of the £7 million fee they agreed for Robbie Keane when he left Leeds for Tottenham last year will instead be going to the Dublin schoolboy club he played for as a teenager probably won't have caused too much upset.

Around Pearse Park in Crumlin, however, the news was considered to be a pretty big deal yesterday.

FIFA ruled that Crumlin United should receive the money under regulations adopted two years ago by the game's governing body relating to what are termed "solidarity payments".

Under the scheme, five per cent of any fee paid for a player who changes club while under contract should be distributed among the clubs which contributed to his development between the ages of 12 and 21.

In the Keane case, the five per cent amounts to £350,000 and, in accordance with the scale laid down in the FIFA rules, United are entitled to 30 per cent of that figure, or €151,000, for having the striker on their books for the four years before he left to join Wolves.

The ruling follows a 10-month battle by Eoin Hand on behalf of the Crumlin club to win FIFA support for the claim. In effect, the world body was asked to clarify its regulations in the wake of the English FA's insistence that, because Keane's transfer was domestic, the regulations did not apply.

Hand, acting in his role as FAI careers officer, challenged their stand, and FIFA have now confirmed that, because the club claiming the solidarity payment is from another jurisdiction, there is the international dimension to the claim required for the regulations to apply.

"This is probably the best feeling I've had since I was managing the Irish team and we beat France 3-2," said Hand yesterday. "I've been pursuing this for nearly a year now and it's a great result to get. It's a landmark decision that will have huge implications for Irish clubs at every level of the game."

Other clubs set to benefit from the ruling include Leicester Celtic, Lourdes Celtic and St Kevin's Boys, the three sides Damien Duff played for before leaving for Blackburn a few days after his 16th birthday.

With the winger having moved to Chelsea during the summer for a reported £17.7 million the "solidarity" portion of the fee totals £885,000, of which the Dublin sides can expect to collect around €64,000, €192,000 and €128,000 respectively.

In all, close to 20 transfers involving Irish players since the regulations came into effect in September 2001 could trigger payments to Irish clubs, although many of the rest involve much smaller mounts of money.

Future moves by the likes of Roy Keane, John O'Shea and Shay Given could result in very substantial payments to their former sides, however.

Crumlin United have a handful of other former players in England, any of whom might earn the club further revenues by moving in the future, and the schoolboy outfit would also receive a similar portion of any future fees paid for Keane, who is still only 23-years-old.

Indeed the extent of the potential of the regulations is illustrated by the fact that, had they been in force since Keane first moved away, United would already have netted around €820,000 from his various multi-million pound transfers.

As he contemplated the prospect of getting his hands on the €152,000 from Spurs, the club's secretary, Gerry McGuigan, insisted the club's officials were "delighted" with the outcome of Hand's work on their behalf.

"It's fantastic like for a club like ours to get this sort of boost," he said. "We do more than just provide footballers to the FAI and the bigger clubs, we keep the lid on an area like Crumlin because when the lads are playing football with us they are keeping out of trouble."

Keane was clearly pleased, too, with the striker sending a text message which read, "Fair play, delighted for yis," to Crumlin chairman Sean Wall.

The club has plans to spend some €600,000 on a full-size, all-weather pitch at their Pearse Park home and are waiting on permission to proceed with the project from Dublin City Council. The money from Spurs will mean major improvements to other facilities at the ground can now be paid for too.

FAI chief executive Fran Rooney, meanwhile, welcomed FIFA's decision and said that the new system would be of particular benefit to countries that, like Ireland, have traditionally lost players to their neighbours.

"We should be a major beneficiary of this decision, but that's only right, it's nothing more than recognition of the efforts that have been put in for years by our schoolboy clubs. What this means is that when they help to produce a major star they will be properly rewarded for their contribution."