Saints will receive a huge financial windfall if Tottenham sell Gareth Bale to Real Madrid – even though they are not entitled to a sell-on fee.

Spanish giants Real Madrid are hoping to sign the Welsh international this summer, with reports suggesting they are lining up a world-record bid in the region of £85m.

Saints do not have any rights to a sell-on fee, meaning they would not receive a percentage of the profit that Spurs would make from such a deal.

However, under FIFA rules, they would be due a proportion of the total transfer fee for their role in training and educating Bale.

World football’s governing body makes provisions for a ‘solidarity contribution’ in their regulations relating to player transfers.

It says that five per cent of any transfer fee must be paid to former clubs involved in developing the player, between the seasons of his 12th and 23rd birthday.

Bale left Saints in the summer of 2007, shortly before his 18th birthday.

If he is sold for a figure close to the one being reported, the club could expect to receive about £2m – two and a half per cent of an £80m fee.

Of course, the sum would be much higher if Saints possessed a sell-on clause.

A 15 per cent agreement, for example, could see them bank around £12m.

Saints received an initial £5m for Bale when he left for White Hart Lane, and were due another £5m in instalments.

However, an early settlement was reached on the remainder of the deal in 2008, in a bid to help ease the club’s financial crisis at the time.

Reports have suggested that a sell-on clause was bought out by Tottenham at that stage.

However, a boardroom source from the time Bale left for Spurs said a sell-on clause was never actually inserted to begin with.

Another source, who has knowledge of the subsequent early settlement with Spurs, also said that one never existed and, therefore, did not form part of the renegotiation.