Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version or go back to LFC Live.net

Liverpool are looking to wrap up the signing of Florian Wirtz.(Image: Marvin Ibo Guengoer - GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)

Florian Wirtz's summer transfer saga involving Liverpool could drag on longer than anticipated.

Well, the Reds may not be involved at least for the final part, as president of 1.

FC Koln, Werner Wolf, has promised arch rivals Bayer Leverkusen that they will make the most of legal methods to 'fight' for what they are 'entitled to' in reference to the 22-year-old playmaker.

Wirtz could very soon make a club record - if not also a British transfer record - switch to Liverpool should they strike up an agreement with Leverkusen at the end of ongoing talks.

Having already rejected €130m (£109m), the price the Bundesliga club are said to be holding out for is a monumental €150m (£126m).

It would earn them quite the profit on the €300k (£252k) BILD state Die Werkself handed over to Koln in January 2020 in what was a controversial transfer, at least locally.

READ MORE:Luis Diaz makes major Liverpool transfer admission after approach rejected - 'We're talking to clubs'READ MORE:Liverpool's dream 25-man squad next season after Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez and £60m transfer

Germany's Rhineland clubs - namely Leverkusen, Koln and Borussia Monchengladbach - were all reported to have a gentleman's agreement not to 'steal' one another's youth talent, dating back to 2001, when Koln tracked and signed Leverkusen's then-12-year-old starlet Marco Quotschalla with the lure of an eight-year contract.

With Wirtz's move in the opposite direction, there was intense strife over the agreement being broken.

Reflecting recently, Wirtz told Sports Illustrated: "When I moved from Cologne to Leverkusen, I did not think for a single second about my salary, but only about what is best for my career."

Article continues below

But BILD's report now bills the saga as shaping up to be a 'million-dollar dispute' once the Reds complete their end of the deal.

"Of course, we are looking into it.

The higher the sum Liverpool is willing to pay, the better for us."

According to FIFA statutes, five per cent of any final transfer fee is required to be 'training compensation', which goes to any one or multiple clubs involved in a player's development between the ages of 12 and 23.

So, Koln's dispute is going to come down to how much of the five per cent they are entitled to.

For argument's sake, were Leverkusen to secure the full €150m (£126m) from Liverpool then the contested sum would be €7.5m (£6.3m).

Wirtz was on Koln's register from the age of seven, in 2010, and left nine-and-a-half years later when aged 16.

Roughly four and three-quarter years were, therefore, spent with the club once he had turned 12, while Wirtz has since been tied to Leverkusen and has not yet reached 23.

Article continues below

The article outlines that Koln will need to go through the FIFA Clearing House in order to secure the highest figure possible after Wirtz's proposed transfer to Liverpool.

Their argument will be that the attacking midfielder's 'training' came to an end much sooner than the age of 23, given that he had made his full Leverkusen debut 15 days past his 17th birthday - plus his German national team debut at 18 years, four months.

Koln will have to pick a date and submit their case, to which sports lawyer Dr.