FourFourTwo a écrit :
Lawyers: Chelsea suspension severe warning to others
Reuters - Yesterday, 20:16
More News on...
Chelsea
LONDON - FIFA's punishment of Chelsea through a transfer ban over their signing of Racing Lens teenager Gael Kakuta is a warning shot to the game's biggest clubs, leading sports lawyers said on Thursday.
Chelsea said they would mount the "strongest possible appeal" after football's world governing body banned the Premier League club from registering new signings until 2011.
FIFA found Chelsea guilty of inducing Kakuta, now 18, to break his contract with the French club in 2007.
"The FIFA regulatory regime is there to ensure contractual stability so clubs can plan their seasons (and) their squads...
"This is an example of FIFA showing just how important it views the regulations," said Dan Harrington of sports business law firm Couchman Harrington Associates.
"The ramifications at the club are potentially huge, not being able to sign anyone until 2011 which could have huge implications for a club of Chelsea's size and stature," he told the BBC.
The west London club were fined in 2005 by the Premier League for tapping up Arsenal full-back Ashley Cole and that case may have been a factor in FIFA's punishment, Adam Morallee of London law firm Mishcon de Reya told Reuters.
MASSIVE PUNISHMENT
"With Ashley Cole it was 300,000 pounds ($489,500) but... it didn't matter," Morallee said, referring to what is a relatively small sum for a club backed by billionaire Roman Abramovich.
"This does matter. It's a case of a governing body laying down a punishment that actually affects a big club. They (Chelsea) only care about points deductions and not being able to do deals.
"Maybe this is a move by governing bodies to say that if you break the rules you will get slammed by a massive punishment.
"In terms of the impact on the game it seems a little harsh but when one looks at the wider issue of how people treat minors, FIFA and UEFA will say that this about the game and how we treat young players going forward."
Morallee said Chelsea would be on dangerous ground if they attempted to gain an injunction against the ban at the High Court citing a restraint of trade, rather than take their appeal to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
"Chelsea are obliged to go through CAS under FIFA rules but they might think to try and get an English judge because English judges hate restraint of trade," added Morallee.
"But if Chelsea do take that route they will make themselves a pariah in football. It would be very high risk."
He said Chelsea's most likely route would be to appeal to CAS, as Swiss club FC Sion did this year in a similar case, which would allow them to continue trading in the next transfer window while the appeal was heard.
"CAS effectively suspended the operation of the (Sion) ban until a decision was reached so by doing that they got round it. That would be one tactic open to Chelsea."
FourFourTwo a écrit :Chelsea to mount strongest appeal possible
442 Staff - Yesterday, 17:38
More News on...
Chelsea
Chelsea have announced that they will mount the "strongest appeal possible" after being banned from registering players for the next two transfer windows by FIFA.
The Blues cannot register new signings until January 2011 after being found guilty of inducing a player to break his contract with another club.
"Chelsea are banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the next two entire and consecutive registration periods (transfer windows)," FIFA said in a statement on Thursday.
The punishment was handed out by world football's governing body following a contractual dispute involving the transfer of reserve team player Gael Kakuta from Racing Lens in 2007.
Following a complaint from Lens, FIFA's dispute resolution chamber ruled Kakuta, now 18, had breached his contract with the French club and that Chelsea had induced him to do so.
The player was ordered to pay 780,000 euros compensation, which FIFA said Chelsea were "jointly liable" for, and he was given a four-month ban from competitive matches.
Chelsea were also ordered to pay "training compensation" of 130,000 euros to Lens.
However, the Stamford Bridge outfit have announced that they will be appealing the ruling.
"Chelsea will mount the strongest appeal possible following the decision of FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber over Gael Kakuta," a club statement read.
"The sanctions are without precedent to this level and totally disproportionate to the alleged offence and the financial penalty imposed.
"We cannot comment further until we receive the full written rationale for this extraordinarily arbitrary decision."
chelseafc.com a écrit :STATEMENT ON FIFA SANCTIONS
Posted on: Thu 03 Sep 2009
Chelsea Football Club has issued the following statement:
Chelsea will mount the strongest appeal possible following the decision of FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber over Gaël Kakuta.
The sanctions are without precedent to this level and totally disproportionate to the alleged offence and the financial penalty imposed.
We cannot comment further until we receive the full written rationale for this extraordinarily arbitrary decision.
The statement is in response to the following decision by FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber announced today (Thursday):
On the occasion of its last meeting held on 27 August 2009, the Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) was called to pass a decision in a contractual dispute opposing the French club Lens to the French player Gael Kakuta and the English club Chelsea.
The French club had lodged a claim with FIFA seeking compensation for breach of contract from the player and requesting also sporting sanctions to be imposed on the player and the English club for breach of contract and inducement to breach of contract respectively.
The DRC found that the player had indeed breached a contract signed with the French club. Equally, the DRC deemed it to be established that the English club induced the player to such a breach.
As a result the player was condemned to pay compensation in the amount of €780,000, for which the club, Chelsea, are jointly and severally liable, and sporting sanctions were imposed on both the player and Chelsea in accordance with art. 17 par. 3 and 4 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players.
A restriction of four months on his eligibility to play in official matches has been imposed on Kakuta. Chelsea are banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two next entire and consecutive registration periods following the notification of the present decision.
Furthermore, the club, Chelsea, have to pay Lens training compensation in the amount of €130,000.
A mon avis, c'est pas très bon pour notre affaire à nous. La FIFA va démultiplier ses efforts contre nous pour arriver face à Chelsea avec une victoire au TAS dans la poche... Surtout que contre Chelsea, c'est une cause qui les tient plus à coeur que notre problème de club contre club : les transferts de mineurs que la FIFA veut à tout prix réguler...
