Don’t @#$% With Franck Ribery’s Money

Agents are, shall we say, less than favorable people. To be an agent one doesn’t have to be exceedingly brilliant, but being a charlatan, swindler and wielding questionable morals at best are almost prerequisites. So when you hear stories like Franck Ribery’s, it puts a little kick into your step.

Franck canceled his deal with Luxembourg-based agent Bruno Heiderscheid just before he moved to Bavaria last summer. Something which I’m sure pissed off Bruno, because he wasn’t able to roll around in the vault like Scrooge McDuck with Franck once he inked that new contract with the German big spenders. And, like any good agent would, he sued Ribery for damages and all that. Only problem is he didn’t do his homework beforehand.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, but this case was held under French law (Marseille and all that, I’m guessing). And the French decided at one point that to be a sports agent, one must have a clean criminal record at the very least and – now sit down for this one – Bruno doesn’t. (Most agents I’ve had the good fortune of meeting are lawyers, which makes this particularly funny.)

So instead of Ribery paying damages for his canceled contract with Bruno, the contract was deemed null and void from the start, meaning Bruno has to pay Ribery the damages, not the other way around. Bruno appealed, but the original ruling was upheld, and he’ll now have to write Franck a check for his fees. To the tune of €340,000.

And though he’s out for this weekend’s big matchup with Bremen, still yet to make his return from that tough Euros injury, he can sit in the stands just as happily counting his money. Chalk one up for the good guys.

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Category: World Football