Chelsea transfer ban lifted as Lens accept £1m over Gael Kakuta row
By Matt Barlow Last updated at 12:43 AM on 5th February 2010
Centre of the storm: Kakuta
Chelsea have escaped their transfer ban after reaching an out-of-court agreement to pay Lens a fee of around £1million for Gael Kakuta.
The settlement represents compensation for the French club for training and developing Kakuta before he crossed the English Channel to Stamford Bridge at the age of 16.
In return, Lens agreed to drop the complaint which prompted FIFA’s dispute and resolution chamber to ban Chelsea from two consecut ive transfer windows.
The case was due to be heard next month by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) until the lawyers struck a deal yesterday.
‘We are pleased to have come to an amicable resolution of the matter and that it has been ratified by CAS and recognised by FIFA,’ said Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck.
Lens were furious when they lost their talented teenager to Chelsea in the summer of 2007. The Premier League club claimed Kakuta was free to move but Lens insisted they had a pre-contract agreement signed by the player before his 16th birthday.
They lodged an official complaint with FIFA, with president Gervais Martel accusing Chelsea of offering ‘a lot of money’ to Kakuta’s family to persuade him to leave and demanding £4.25m in compensation.
Lens were awarded only £115,000, however, as FIFA chose instead to make an example of the wealthy Premier League club with a two-window transfer ban.
FIFA also fined Kakuta £680,000 for breaking the pre-contract deal and banned him from football for four months.
When the punishment was delivered last September, Chelsea sent their legal team into action . They appealed to CAS, who froze the transfer ban pending the hearing.
It left Chelsea free to trade in the January window but they opted
not to sign anyone when the market opened. Confidence had increased at
Stamford Bridge that the pre-contract agreement signed by Kakuta was
not legally binding and that they could win the case.
Lens are in serious financial trouble. They are desperately seeking
£10m before the end of the season to pay off debts and have lodged
another complaint with FIFA, claiming Portsmouth owe them millions in
unpaid transfer fees for Nadir Belhadj
and Aruna Dindane.
In the end, a financial agreement was of far greater value to them
than any point of principle and they dared not risk losing the case and
incurring legal costs of their own.
The French club were last night suggesting they had secured a fee of £2.8m but FIFA
are expected to confirm their case had been undermined.
As part of yesterday’s settlement, Lens conceded that the pre-contract agreement with
Kakuta was ‘not valid’ and that, therefore, the teenager could not be
accused of breaking it and Chelsea were ‘not liable for breach of
contract’.
‘As a consequence, in light of these new circumstances, the sanctions imposed upon Chelsea FC and the player by the FIFA dispute resolution chamber had to be lifted,’ CAS confirmed. Kakuta, now 18, is free to continue his career and Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay said: ‘We are pleased Chelsea has been cleared of any wrongdoing and that the matter is closed.’
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Wait for it...!, "Disgusted" from Manchester, "Outraged" from Liverpool", "Angry" from North London....Where are you? All this shows is that the issue of "protecting young footballers from exploitation" has been exposed for what it is... A scam to make a few "bucks."..
- Paul, Feltham, 05/2/2010 08:36
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