Adrian Mutu Is Officially A Very Poor Anti-Drug Ad

Well, it’s official: Adrian Mutu must pay Chelsea FC €17m, so says the Court for Arbitration of Sport.

The ruling was handed down awhile ago, sometime last year to be not quite precise, but Adrian went through the various appeals process with little success. In fact he probably wishes he’d kept his big bazzoo shut, as the penalty jumped up €5m+ during the process.

The legalities can be summed up as this: Adrian breached his contract by doing coke, and thus he must cover Chelsea’s investment – what with Chelsea being so poor and all.

How Adrian plans to pay this back remains to be seen. If he wants a giant, career-ending contract elsewhere, he’s going to have to submit a transfer request to Fiorentina – and even then, he’s now on the wrong side of 30 and it remains to be seen just how much he could command. He and his new bride had a fairly lucrative reality show back in Romania, which may still be going on, but that’s not going to cut it. Maybe he can panhandle on the streets of Firenze. Or perhaps a sex tape involving the couple, a circus mule and a pregnant Bobo Vieri will do the trick. Panhandling outside one of Roman Abramovich’s many houses and/or yachts would also help.

The guardian report even speculates Adrian could up and retire, appropriately thumbing his nose at Chelsea and walking off into the sunset. With the other footballing option being playing ’til he’s 57 in order to pay off his sins.

Whatever the case, Adrian might have become the poor man’s (sincerest apologies) Jean-Marc Bosman. The player whose name becomes synonymous with a court-ruling and, in this case much smaller, alteration of the sport’s landscape. Bosman’s ruling changed the financial landscape of the game, while Mutu’s could change the ramifications of off-field fun. After all, absolutely no one wants a Mutu.

So how many players will get an image of Mutu in a Chelsea kit the next time a mirror topped with white dust is shoved before their face? How many might think “hey, maybe ‘pulling a hammy’ and spending the next few weeks in rehab isn’t such a terrible idea“? I gather a fair few. Because while athletes love their fun, I can guarantee many, if not most, love their money more.

So while we can genuinely feel bad for Adrian after making what is a simple mistake – one many, many people make every day – this, dare I say, might actually be a good thing for football. How many athletes will take a bag of coke out of their pocket if it must be accompanied by a blank check?

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Category: World Football