The little-known Fifa rule that has Brazilian club hoping Barcelona sign Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool

Philippe Coutinho began his career at Vasco da Game in his native Brazil (Getty Images)

Barcelona aren't the only club who are hoping to see Liverpool forward Philippe Coutinho lining at Camp Nou this season.

Vasco da Gama, of the Brazilian Serie A, will be hoping the proposed transfer goes through - and the higher the fee the better.

Thanks to a Fifa statute known as the "solidarity mechanism", the Rio de Janeiro-based side will receive 2.5 per cent of their youth product's transfer fee, as Globo reports.

The rule states: "If a professional moves during the course of a contract, 5 per cent of any compensation, not including training compensation paid to his former club, shall be deducted from the total amount of this compensation and distributed by the new club as a solidarity contribution to the club(s) involved in his training and education over the years."

How the Fifa solidarity mechanism works

Under the solidarity mechanism, a club is entitled to 0.25 per cent of an international transfer fee for every year they trained a youngster between the ages of 12 and 15 and 0.5 per cent for every year between 16 and 23.

Coutinho started his career at Vasco da Gama, joining as a 12-year-old, before leaving for Inter at 18 (four years at the 0.25 rate and three more at 0.5).

Liverpool rejected a bid of 100m euros (£90m) for the player last week.

That deal would have seen Vasco receive €2.5m - almost as much as the full fee they made when sold him to Inter in 2008.