Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson has described the £204,000 in compensation his club must pay Rangers for Charlie Telfer as "ridiculously prohibitive".

The Tannadice outfit have been ordered by an SPFL tribunal to pay training compensation of £170,000 plus VAT to the Championship club for the 19-year-old who signed for United in the summer under freedom of contract.

The Tayside club pointed out on its website that while Telfer had made one substitute appearance for the Ibrox side in League One, he had been given the opportunity to develop his career in the Scottish Premiership with United.

Telfer has made six appearances for the Terrors which helped earn the midfielder the SPFL young player of the month award for November.

In a statement Thompson said: "This judgement in our opinion will have a serious impact on the freedom of movement of some young players through no fault of their own.

"Today's decision protects clubs even in the event that those clubs are responsible for players' careers being stifled at a critical stage in their development.

"It will restrict the opportunities for some of our most promising young players to gain regular first-team football and act as a deterrent to any Scottish football club which wishes to take such players on.

"Today's decision is completely at odds with the stated aims of our football authorities in respect of encouraging our most promising young players to play first-team football at the highest level."

Thompson added: "It highlights the need for parents and young players to choose their clubs very, very carefully.

"Today's judgement now sets a dangerous precedent that means some of our most promising young players will be deprived of the opportunity to secure a contract at a club where they have been offered a genuine first-team opportunity and to improve their earnings purely because the compensation has been set at a ridiculously prohibitive level.

"The sum awarded to Rangers is almost seven times the amount offered to the player under the terms of his new contract with the Glasgow club."

Rangers released their own statement in which the club described itself as "content" with the compensation fee for a player who was at the Ibrox club for 10 years.

The statement also claimed that United argued that Rangers' demise into administration and liquidation in 2012 meant the Ibrox club was only two years old and therefore could not have developed Telfer for a decade.

The statement read: "The payment awarded, which was significantly higher than Dundee United's final offer, vindicates the Club's decision to take the matter to a Compensation Tribunal.

"Dundee United introduced a late argument stating Rangers should only be awarded compensation for the training and development of Charlie Telfer for two years instead of the 10 years that he was with the Club.

"They argued the Club in its current form has only existed for two years.

"It is disappointing Dundee United tried to pursue this tiresome, legally incorrect and provocative argument given that it has been repeatedly confirmed by the football authorities in Scotland and beyond that administration and liquidation of the companies that owned the Club did not break the continuity of the Club's history or its record of honours won."

Rangers removed the part of the statement which referred to United's claims from their website early on Tuesday evening.

Thompson later told BBC Scotland: "We did not use the two years old scenario as quoted."