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Adrian Mutu is really ruing a mistake made five years ago when what began with a €22750 fine has now snowballed to the extent that Chelsea may request FIFA to ban him from football until his €17,17 million fine is paid.
The one time Chelsea striker, purchased at the beginning of Abramovich’s Oil-Fuelled spending spree was initially ordered by FIFA to repay Chelsea €12 million to compensate the €29.4 million transfer fee paid for him.
To add salt to Mutu’s already deep wound, the fine was increased upon appeal to €15.54 million, over half the transfer fee and now that the Court of Arbitration for Sport have dismissed his appeal, Mutu has until Monday to cough up an inflated figure of €17,173,990 or face a possible ban from football.
So how did Mutu get himself into this mess?
Stupidly, he took cocaine, he admitted it and was handed a 7 month ban from football and was subsequently sacked by his then employer, the aforementioned Chelsea.
This has since been dubbed a breach of his employment contract.
Let’s not get into contract law here as no-one has a copy of the contract but Chelsea released the player, he surely would have happily stayed on the clubs books ala Rio Ferdinand, possibly even without pay but Chelsea, in a moment of haste, let him go and hence were unable to recoup any of the fee paid for him.
Thereby we come to the €29.4 million mega fee.
This is a ridiculous sum paid at the height of Chelsea’s over-spending. His transfer from Inter to Parma cost €10 million so how, one season later did his value triple?
He had a great year at Parma but I watched the new look Chelsea team with interest and Mutu was mediocre at best and certainly not worth €30 million. He was duly dubbed a flop by the media.
It’s simple, Chelsea, in their haste to rebuild, overpaid for the player.
However the real problem here is the transfer fees themselves. This business is conducted solely amongst clubs but somehow FIFA have managed to connect them with the players.
Now, due to Chelsea’s back room staff forking out an inflated fee, Mutu is being asked to fork out an inflated fine?
I fear that FIFA has set a precedent here which they are going to have huge problems with in the future.
What if Cristiano Ronaldo has had one too many and he crashes in a tunnel (again, although last time he was sober). If he is injured and can never play again, does Real Madrid have the right to reclaim the €93 million transfer fee from him?
No.
Or Andriy Shevchenko, who has been one of the all-time biggest flops in his time at Stamford Bridge? He didn’t live up to expectation, should he be fined €35 million?
Again, No.
Transfer fees have nothing to do with the players and until such time that they do, they should not be held accountable for them. Just because football is run by sports-loving wall-street banker types does not mean that players should suffer.
A player’s personality should be considered when purchasing reinforcements. Sir Alex Ferguson for example only buys players with both the mental and physical attributes required at Manchester United and while it’s not Chelsea’s fault that Mutu took drugs, if he was a notorious party animal then they should have been more diligent.
And let’s not forget Chelsea’s role in all of this as they are well known for their off field shenanigans. They’ve previously been fined for tapping up Ashley Cole not to mention the saga surrounding John Obi Mikel but they have taken unprecedented steps in this case to make Mutu pay.
It really stinks of; “any excuse will serve a tyrant” to me, Abramovich just wanting to flex his muscles, Putin style.
Thankfully Mutu has the backing of his club, their owners and some good lawyers, there is still a ways to go before we’ve heard the end of it but hopefully, he can continue playing and Chelsea get what they deserve, nothing.
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