New era after Webster rule

Webster, 25, successfully invoked article 17 of FIFA's transfer ruling, allowing him to break his own contract three years after it was signed. The ruling is expected to have huge implications for the top end of the game, with Chelsea's Frank Lampard tipped to be the next player to exploit the clause.

"If Andy Webster was not entitled to do as he has done, he would not have been allowed to sign for Wigan," Fraser Wishart of the Scottish PFA said. "It will have a big impact at the top level and will bring a bit of sense to the transfer market.

"Players can now afford to take a risk, knowing roughly what they will have to pay."

According to article 17, any player who signed while under the age of 28 can buy-out his own contract three years after the deal was signed, with the window shortened to two years if he is 28 or older. The fee for buying-out one's contract at the beginning of the unprotected period is determined by a FIFA panel, which takes into account the players wages and the amount invested in his development by the club.

Webster - who moved in August - was ordered to pay Hearts £625,000 for moving to Wigan, which is higher than the amount expected by the international players' union:

"The compensation is far higher than we thought it would be," declared Tony Higgins from FIFPro, who believe compensation should be 1.5 times the average annual salary of the player.

Webster is now on-loan at Rangers after failing to break into the Wigan first-team, ironically as Hearts had previously refused to sell the player to the Glasgow giants.