

Didn’t Anyone Tell Chelsea? Don’t Mess With Karma.
By: chris | September 3rd, 2009
It’s a witch hunt I tell you!
Wait…wrong one. A @#$%ing disgrace! Chelsea Football Club have been banned by FIFA – not UEFA, it’s important to note – from the registration of new players for one year for once again illegaly tapping up a player (remember Cashley?) and inducing him to break his contract. That player is Gael Kakuta, one most probably don’t know, who has become the most infamous transfer of the Roman Abramovich era overnight.
This effectively means the Chelsea squad you’re looking at right now is the Chelsea squad you’ll see until at least the winter of 2011, barring any promotions from the youth team. That’s quite a blow to a club which spent the summer looking to make that one big move – Pato looks safe in Milan for another summer – as they slowly transition what is a not-quite-spring-chicken squad. Not yet over the hill, but some of the Blues won’t age gracefully.
The story reads out like so:
Chelsea have been banned from signing any new players until 2011, after Fifa accused them of illegally inducing a French youth-team player to join the club in 2007.
Fifa’s dispute resolution chamber today released a statement fining Gaël Kakuta €780,000 following a complaint from FC Lens and finding Chelsea “jointly and severely liable”.
“Furthermore, the club, FC Chelsea, has to pay to RC Lens training compensation in the amount of €130,000.”
What’s perhaps a bit ironic in all this is that Carlo Ancelotti left a club, Milan, which so often failed to bring him the right players in the transfer market. Now he’s at a club which can’t bring him any at all. Tough luck for Carletto.
Now, is this what Europe’s been waiting for? What Michel Platini has been waiting for? The much needed attack on player poaching by English clubs? The details are a bit scarce right now, but it would appear not. Kakuta was 17 at the time, which means he was eligible for a professional contract and thus that is the likely breach.
But even if so, are we naive to think the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other players poached by English clubs in this manner were all done so squeaky clean? That none of them were like this? Hardly, and you can be sure every single English club is on the phone with its legal team right now.
* – According to Lens/L’Equipe, he was under a youth contract. This sets a very, very dangerous precedent for youth poaching. Michel Platini must be beaming.
“The decision was expected. The boy was under contract and they came to steal him from us … Chelsea behaved in an unacceptable way in contacting the player before he was even 16 years old and while he was still being nurtured by us as he had been since the age of eight and a half. He had the standard French-style training contract with us.”
And the €130k fine just seems to fall a bit short. Perhaps for a club which has taken such high moral ground in the courtrooms recently – the same one which has flown helicopters into opposing training grounds to steal players – it should be a bit higher; let’s say €17m, payable directly to Adrian Mutu.
Karma will kill you every time. (Illegal activities, too.)
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French reports say this was a youth training contract. It’s now an entirely different scenario – this is a youth poaching issue, not simply a contract breach. Chelsea might not be the only team.
Posted from
United States

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Also – the larger fine is joint and several liability. That means that FC Lens can collect from either the player or Chelsea.
Posted from
United States

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It’s about time…
Posted from
United States

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isn’t this exactly what manyoo did with macheda? is it not a probably for fifa if it’s not a french club being poached?
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United States

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If you think this punishment is too harsh, just ask Adrian Mutu about Chelsea and overly harsh punishments. Karma at its finest.
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United States

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*probably=problem
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United States

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except mutu wasn’t being punished, he’s paying compensation for breaching a contract.
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United States

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This means, at least two more years of Aguero for us
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United States

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Oh please. It will never stand. FIFA will cave to Chelsea. The ban doesn’t even go into effect until after the appeal is heard which will probably take months, meaning Chelsea will be able to participate in the winter transfer market. What do you all bet this whole thing gets reduced to a fine?
Posted from
United States

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But…but…but Roman is a Russian oligarch! Everybody knows the rules don’t apply to Russian oligarchs!!
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United States

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This reminds me of the whole Eduardo saga. I mean every big team does this. Why just Chelsea and I’m an Arsenal supporter…?!?? So FIFA picks out Chelsea. It is kind of like Eufa picking out Eduardo for one dive. Then you get the OT faithful harassing Eduardo while Ronaldo and others on the devils spent the past two years doing the same. If they are going to lay down the law they have to be consitent.
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United States

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The real issue that FIFA / whatever authority has the real power needs to tackle is forcing England to change their fricking laws to prevent them from offering professional contracts to kids at the age of 16. If a standard age isn’t set all around Europe, this nonsense will always continue.
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United States

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Oh and BTW I remember one particular dive that a devil had on Celtic in the CL in 2007. I believe Paul Scholes was on the edge of the box and Boruc comes over and Scholes takes a major dive and Evra slots home the penalty. Why does Celtic not make a huge cry over that??????????? HMmmmmmmmmmmmmm
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United States

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Looks like the behaviour of Drogba and Ballack has ruffled more feathers than thought. Even so, this is great news for everyone!
Posted from
Australia

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French reports say this was a youth training contract. It’s now an entirely different scenario – this is a youth poaching issue, not simply a contract breach. Chelsea might not be the only team.
What does that mean about landing your helicopter in another teams training ground to abduct a young kid?
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United States

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Iniesta and FIFA beat these fuckers nice and good!!! Nice and Good!!! Down with Chelski Petroleum Corporation!!!
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United States

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Wait a minute, so Adrian Mutu gets caught with drugs in his system, which was of course a breach of contract, and somehow he’s some sort of martyr? The fine may have been excessive, but there seems to be no doubt that Mutu WAS caught with drugs in his system.
And of course there’s the requisite Barca fan, still pleasuring himself to the one shot they had on target for that entire game.
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United States

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Adrian Mutu was caught with drugs in his system and was canned by the club.
Once the club figured out that they could have gotten a transfer fee – once they figured out that they f’ed up royally – they retroactively tried to get that money back and at the same time tried to clean some of the egg off their own face.
They didn’t try to get it from the club that bought his contract, because they have no standing to do so – they legally released Mutu.
So they are trying to extort the player into paying what they should have gotten had they been smarter. Or competent.
That’s why he’s a martyr. Everyone realizes that drugs are wrong and that he’s wrong for taking them.
However, everyone realizes that he wasn’t the one at fault for Chelsea acting like idiots, either.
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United States

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Fair enough, MAD.
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United States

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People entertain me – particularly my editors.
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United States

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you do realize that chelsea didnt set the fine?? The fine on mutu was set by fifa/uefa and imposed by the CAS. The fine is excessive but not under chelsea’s control. They didnt go hey we want this amount of money, they just took him to court over breach of contract.
Now with FIFA current tough stance on things, the whole eduardo incident is bullshit, 2 match ban for a dive that basically goes over the head of the referee and imposes a fine on a player outside of the game, if the ref doesnt call it you cant fine a player simple as that, otherwise you would need to rescind yellow cards and red cards for incorrect calls.
This chelsea thing is bullshit too because kakuta came to chelsea when he was 15. If im not mistaken players in france cant sign pro contracts till 16 or 18. That means it was a youth contract he rescinded. It means basically if this goes through then clubs that have had their players poached(macheda is a good example but plenty of others) could all sue and could lobby to impose the same restrictions on players.
Very dangerous precident to set, especially if chelsea gets the fine and no other club does, it basically means that chelsea would be in their civil right to sue FIFA. And if other teams do get fined suddenly the english clubs would be hit very hard.Posted from
United States

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Why did Chelsea decide to go after Mutu after they had already let him go? Wouldn’t it have been smarter to get their money from the player while they still control his wages?
Seems suspicious to me that only after Mutu proved that he still had transfer potential that Chelsea decided to go after him.
Chelsea decided to take him to court for a reason. That reason was a loss of transfer fee.
And it’s about time that the Premier League becomes accountable for their talent poaching – 2 more were stolen this summer from Italy to ManUre. The only reason that England has a different law regarding professional contracts is so that they can steal from others.
If English teams get hit hard… I will still go to sleep at night. Won’t bother me at all to see justice done. Finally.
England needs to learn that they are passengers in the UEFA bus.
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United States

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european superleague…
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United States

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I loved the headline in The Sun – Your Not Signing Anymore!
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United Kingdom

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The key is growth margins went in the right direction, unit volume increased quarter on quarter, and expenses came down. We threw off over $300 million in cash. All of those were in the right direction. So I think we’re on our way.
Posted from
Spain

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