Chelsea will fight Fifa ban

SOCCER PREMIER LEAGUE: CHELSEA LAST night vowed to fight Fifa's shock decision to ban the London club from signing any new players until 2011 after they were found guilty of illegally inducing a French youth international to sign in 2007.

The ruling from Fifa’s Dispute Resolution Chamber also banned the 18-year-old attacking midfielder Gael Kakuta, considered the cream of the club’s academy talent, for four months and fined him €780,000.

Chelsea are jointly liable for that fine, must also pay “training compensation” to Lens of €130,000 and are banned from registering any new players in the next two transfer windows.

The club, who were unusually quiet on the transfer front this summer and face the absence of key players during the African Nations Cup, said they would “mount the strongest appeal possible” to Fifa’s “extraordinarily arbitrary” decision. They added: “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.”

Setting the stage for a landmark battle between the world governing body and the London club, who have faced accusations of poaching young talent at home and abroad since installing Frank Arnesen in 2005 to oversee the introduction of a scouting network, the full written judgment will arrive at Stamford Bridge in the next fortnight. Chelsea are then expected to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, arguing the punishment is vastly disproportionate to the alleged crime.

Sports lawyers speculated the club may also argue that the player was not signed to a full professional deal but, like other young players in France, was tied to Lens via an “elite training” contract. They could also argue that the decision contravenes European laws on restraint of trade.

The case will strike at the heart of some of the arguments raging around the world over the trade in young overseas talent and accusations that English clubs habitually cream off the best players.

“It’s a logical decision. They stole the boy off us when he was 16. He was at our club since the age of eight-and-a-half. Unfortunately, 95 times out of 100, it’s the English clubs who come and help themselves,” the Lens chairman Gervais Martel said last night. “It’s a good decision but Lens were not compensated enough. The player is a gem. He is good enough to play for Chelsea.”

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon and Arnesen were warned in a face-to-face meeting with the Lens general manager that Chelsea would suffer a 12-month transfer ban if they pursued the transfer of Gael Kakutal.

Francois Collado, the now-retired former general manager at Lens, met the pair in London to state his club’s terms. But on being asked what Lens wanted for the teenage player, his fee demand was immediately rejected.

Chelsea then lodged a verbal counter-offer that Collado describes as “ridiculous”.

Kakuta was recognised as one of the most promising young talents in France when he signed for Chelsea in the summer of 2007. During the following season he was the leading scorer for Chelsea’s academy, playing wide or behind the forwards, and was voted scholar of the year. Last season was blighted by injuries but he is back playing for the reserves and was yesterday included in Chelsea’s Champions League squad.

Fifa will point to a number of other recent cases that have reinforced the position of clubs when it comes to holding players to their contracts as evidence that it is not making an example of Chelsea in particular or English clubs in general. In April, Switzerland’s FC Sion were punished for a similar offence over the signing of the Egyptian goalkeeper Essam el-Hadary from Al-Alhy. They were banned from signing any new players until next summer and Hadary received a four-month ban. But after Sion appealed to CAS, the sanctions were frozen while it considers the case, allowing the club to trade during the summer, with a judgment expected later this year.

In May, a ruling over the Brazilian player Matuzalem was upheld by CAS when he transferred from Shakhtar Donetsk to Real Zaragoza. The Spanish club were not accused of inducing the player to break his contract but were still made jointly liable for the €11.9m CAS fine.

In 2004, Roma were also banned from trading for two transfer windows following defender Philippe Mexes’ move from Auxerre. The appeal to CAS had the ban cut to one window.

Guardian Service