The Transfer Ban

[Term-X 7,891]

Haha, i was saying to Steve on Facebook, i would love to see Sepp Blatter put a medal around Kakuta's neck in the CL Final

......

[the wes 7,212]

Chelseaface a second legal threat over allegations of poaching young players,this time concerning the move of an 11-year-old to Stamford Bridge.ASPTT Marseille, the French club who saw Jérémy Boga switch to westLondon last October, are consulting lawyers over whether to make afresh complaint to Fifa.

FollowingFifa's imposition of a transfer ban until January 2011 over Chelsea'sillegal recruitment of the teenage forward Gaël Kakuta from Lens, ASPTTMarseille will take legal advice on Tuesday to discuss the case ofBoga, who had spent five years with the amateur team.

RobertCaturégli, the chairman of the Marseille club's football division,claims Chelsea pushed through the transfer by arranging accommodationand a car for the player's parents.

Caturégli alleges that Lyon,Marseille and Bordeaux took an interest in Boga's development but thatthe youngster's father, who had previously split from his wife andmoved to London, made contact with English clubs about the possibletransfer.

Chelsea are understood to have been told that the childalready intended to move to London to live with his father, who wassaid to be living within Chelsea's catchment area. The club do notconsider they have broken any rules over the move. Since Boga was underthe age of 12 there was no requirement for the club to seekinternational clearance.

"The player is so gifted the threebiggest clubs in France wanted him," said Caturégli. "But Chelsea founda solution of taking the whole family: the mum, the two brothers and tokeep them in a house in Wimbledon. The mum has a car to take the kidsto school and to training or whatever. He was in our Under-12s team andwe're just a youth development club. He didn't have a contract so wefelt we couldn't go to Fifa.

"But if the family were getting backtogether they could have done so at Marseille and the boy has beentaken to England at a very young age. It's sure that Chelsea didn'treunite the family for sentimental reasons. We're prisoners of thesebig clubs who purloin our players. Chelsea did not give us even onesingle football."

ASPTT will ask lawyers whether thecircumstances of the move are in contravention of Fifa's Article 19,governing international transfers involving minors. That states:"International transfers of players are only permitted if the player isover the age of 18," adding that a child may only register with aforeign club if "the player's parents move to the country in which thenew club is located for reasons not linked to football".

Chelsea,who are appealing against Fifa's Kakuta ruling, refused to comment.However, if Caturégli's claims are true, he would have the sympathy ofUefa's president, Michel Platini, who is a Fifa vice-president. "Whenyou uproot [a child] from their home environment, when you make thememotionally disorientated, I call that child trafficking," said Platiniin a speech to the European parliament in February.

Chelsea havelong insisted that their policy for youth player recruitment is basedaround London, in accordance with Football Association regulations.Setting out his role as "a headhunter around the world" at a Leaders inFootball conference last year, Chelsea's head of player recruitment,Frank Arnesen, explained self-imposed age limits on overseasacquisitions.

"London is our first aim for seven to12-year-olds," said Arnesen. "At 12-14 we go a little bit further butstill London, for 14-16 it's around the UK and at 16-18 it's theEuropean Union. At 18-plus, it's the rest of the world."

Chelsea'scaptain, John Terry, yesterday spoke of his "shock" at the Fifadecision over Kakuta. "It was a big shock to me," said the Englandcaptain. "But the club have reiterated that I can't speak about it asthey are appealing very strongly."

www.guardian.co.uk

[Term-X 7,891]

what about man-utd..

none of these little clubs wanna report them fifa, notice that story about them soon died down.

[warnie_666 1,081]

Godd...these little clubs are comming out like PESTS from their fucking holes....

[caesarblues 51]

lil club wanna get spotlight

[BlueLion. 21,491]

That's all they are LITTLE clubs. Ridiculous.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Either way, we still have the squad to win trophies both this season and next. I am very confident the ban will be reduced, as it was from Roma - if it isn't, it's totally unfair and will confirm the anti-Chelsea agenda shared by UEFA and FIFA, in which case, Chelsea should boycott European competition IMO.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

As far as I'm concerned, whilst Arnesen picks up his £50,000 a week wage-packet, its the academy coaches who develop these players, not him.

[Elliott 7]

Frankly I think FIFA have got it wrong. Kakuta did not have a legally binding contract with Lens, simple as that. FIFA are trying to say that it is legal in the world of football because they want to protect youngsters and the clubs that develop them, but that doesn't change the fact that actually, Kakuta's contract at the time was a pre-contract agreement and nothing more.

[Drogba11CFC 108]

French clubs too...

Whatever happened to cheese-eating surrender monkeys?

[Alee. 182]

Whatever happened to cheese-eating surrender monkeys?

Looking for lawyers

[.Cee 50]

lil club wanna get spotlight

Change that to money...

[the wes 7,212]

Arnesen’s role in the signing of Gael Kakuta, the 18-year-old French winger at the centre of the controversy, will come under fierce scrutiny as will that of Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon.

However it is understood that Arnesen, in particular, pushed for the signing of Kakuta which has led to Chelsea being accused, and found guilty by football’s world governing body, of inducing the midfielder to break his contract with his previous club, Lens, in 2007.

Chelsea argue that there was no contract in place and that Arnesen and Kenyon acted properly, but Fifa sources are adamant that they will be able to produce the necessary evidence while Lens have also accused the Premier League club of paying “a lot of money” to Kakuta’s family to encourage him to move to Stamford Bridge.

Arnesen’s position at Chelsea has been under threat before, not least last year when he appeared to be on the verge of leaving, while previous to that he had clashed with Jose Mourinho. Club owner Roman Abramovich, along with his key director Eugene Tenenbaum will demand answers as to how the debacle has happened. Arnesen has proved a great survivor, and was promoted at Chelsea during the summer, becoming more central to the first-team plans, but will need to satisfy Abramovich over this deal.

Chelsea maintained yesterday that they will definitely appeal Fifa’s ruling and will, once they have received the evidence and documentation in the next three weeks, go to the Court of Arbitration in Sport to try and reduce or overturn the ban which includes fines of nearly 1m euros for the club and player and a four-month ban for Kakuta.

Chelsea captain John Terry yesterday spoke of his “shock” at the ruling. “What is my reaction to the Fifa ban? It was a big shock to me and it is very difficult,” he said. “But it is difficult for me to talk about it. I have spoken to the club last night and again this morning and they have reiterated that I can’t speak about it as they are appealing very strongly.” CAS’s secretary general, Matthieu Reeb, said yesterday that Chelsea can expect a decision on that appeal by mid-December. “It will be a final decision which would replace the Fifa decision if necessary,” he said.

Chelsea will hope to have the sentence reduced, of course, although because CAS appear able to hear the case before January it doesn’t seem likely that the club could – as previously happened with FC Sion, who faced a similar charge – apply for a stay on the penalty allowing them to trade in the winter transfer window.

Chelsea believe that they are the victims of a witch-hunt given their, previous, fractious relationship with Uefa while the ramifications of the verdict may well be felt throughout Europe’s leading clubs. Le Havre cried foul last month over Manchester United’s signing of Paul Pogba although they have yet to make a formal complaint. United deny any wrongdoing.

Yesterday Jean-Pierre Louvel, the club’s president, said of the Kakuta verdict: “It's a strong signal to the England clubs, notably Chelsea, who have yet to understand that there are rules that have to be respected by clubs and by young players.

“That should make other English clubs think twice before going ahead with this kind of thing. They have to take into consideration the French clubs that have developed these players and invested in them. I hope that Manchester will find themselves with the same problems that Chelsea are now facing. We are in a very similar situation (to Lens).”

Leading Italian clubs - Lazio, Roma and Fiorentina - have all voiced their displeasure at losing the crown jewels of their youth schemes to United over the past two years, with Sir Alex Ferguson taking Federico Macheda, Davide Petrucci and, most recently, Michele Fornasier. Reggina are also believed to have lodged a complaint with the FIGC, the Italian FA, and Uefa over Chelsea’s pursuit of Vincenzo Camilleri, a defender just 15 when he spurned the chance to sign professional terms with the southern Italian club.

Similarly, Macheda moved to Manchester a day after his 16th birthday and Fornasier had already featured for United in a tournament in Northern Ireland at the age of 15.

Under UEFA’s current regulations, all international transfers are banned of players under the age of 16 unless their parents are moving abroad for reasons other than football.

www.telegraph.co.uk

[ZanSnake 1,211]

So wait, it was BOTH Arnesen and Kenyon?

Still sack Arnesen, don't know about Kenyon though.

[chrismada9 1,948]

He's T*ttenham material, he should have stayed where he was...

..oh wait, didn't we actually try to tap him up from T*ttenham... well that just sums it all then

sack the bastard

[Kez 2,727]

FFS what next?

[ZanSnake 1,211]

Fucking Arnesen and he's stupidity. Dammit!

[ChelseaChick 430]

ffs just what we need