Chelsea were yesterday given the green light by the Premier League to pursue Adrian Mutu for compensation after his failed drugs test last October. A panel headed by Robert Reid QC ruled that Chelsea had been justified in sacking the Romania international striker after he was found to have been in breach of contract, "without just cause or sporting just cause" for an act of gross misconduct.

"Chelsea (are) obviously pleased that the appeals committee has vindicated the club's position and opened the door for a compensation claim and sporting sanctions before Fifa's dispute resolution chamber," said a club statement. "Chelsea will continue to pursue the case vigorously as the principle is an important one."

Now that liability has been established, it is believed Mutu has 14 days to appeal against the decision before Chelsea approach Fifa's dispute resolution chamber (DRC) with their claim. Fifa is responsible for the claim rather than the English Football Association since it is a cross-border dispute involving an English club and a foreign player.

In the event of a failed appeal by Mutu, the Fifa body will be convened and chaired by Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, the 72-year-old president of Germany's Football Association and head of Fifa's players' status committee. If it agrees with the decision of the Premier League, the chamber will be empowered to award financial compensation and to impose sporting sanctions on Mutu. The player has already received from the FA a worldwide seven-month ban for his use of cocaine, which will expire on May 18th. That did not stop Juventus engaging him on a five-year contract this year, though the terms of his suspension are not believed to have been contravened.

Chelsea will pursue their compensation claim with Mutu directly, which could jeopardise his situation at Juventus. Previous cases considered by the DRC have resulted in substantial sums being awarded. One, involving the Argentinian Ariel Ortega, who walked out of Fenerbahce with three years to run on his contract, led to the player being fined €9.5 million.

Hostile takeover bids for Manchester United, such as the one launched by Malcolm Glazer, are inevitable according to Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive who formerly held the same position at Old Trafford. He said the fact that United is a public limited company meant it would always be "in play" and would never have the long-term security afforded by Roman Abramovich's private ownership of Chelsea.

Kenyon said he was glad he was no longer on United's board and faced with the Glazer decision. He also suggested the primary beneficiaries of going public were key shareholders rather than the club. His comments are unlikely to ease relations with Alex Ferguson, who last week accused him of holding his former employer "in contempt" after he dined publicly with Rio Ferdinand.

Clubs could be kicked out of European competition or have points deducted for crowd trouble under new policies being considered by Uefa. Uefa have been stung in recent weeks by trouble at a Champions League match between Inter Milan and AC Milan and the furore surrounding the tie involving Barcelona and Chelsea which resulted in referee Anders Frisk retiring.

The executive committee of European soccer's governing body said yesterday it would not refrain from taking firm action and imposing strict measures if there was any continuation of the violent scenes and intimidation of officials that has blighted European football in recent weeks.

Uefa chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson said new sanctions would be discussed at June's committee meeting in Manchester and did not rule out the possibility that clubs could be disqualified or have points deducted. "We could say that matches could not be played for a certain period of time, we could take decisions like we did with English clubs not playing in Europe," Olsson said.