Chelsea deserve the slap
Posted on | September 5, 2009 | No Comments
Yes, you can point to the hundreds of similar cases, and yes, it’s harsh to fine a player who was 15 at the time of the offence, but just as with Eduardo’s post-match conviction for diving, Chelsea deserve their two-year transfer ban for tapping up Gael Kakuta.
Why? Because Fifa, like Uefa, have to start somewhere when it comes to enforcing the rules. Tapping up players has been going on for a long time without punishment, and the same went for diving before Eduardo got slapped with a two-game ban by Uefa.
The ruling is thus – Fifa say French winger Kakuta, now 18, cannot play an official match for four months and also has to pay 780,000 euros (£682,000) for which Chelsea are “jointly and severally liable”.
-Also, Chelsea must pay 130,000 euros (£114,000) as compensation to Lens, the French club they supposedly incited him to break contract with.
-And Chelsea are banned from signing any new players until January 2011, which in Football terms, is an eon.
Penalising Kakuta for something he supposedly did when he was 15 is a bit nuts – surely there’s an agent or advisor of his who deserves the hit?
But in my view Chelsea deserve the penalty (likely to be halved on appeal). Whether this crackdown by Fifa really is justified will be judged against similar criteria to that applied to Eduardo’s ban – ie, consistency.
Fifa must now go on to apply punishment where appropriate to other clubs who flout the rules. Why is the Champions League only winnable for a select elite? Why are the big European leagues dominated by a small number of massive clubs? Because they frequently whisker away young talent from clubs who do not have the financial pull.
Stamping out the tapping up of teenagers could benefit the excitement of competitions across Europe if it is done properly over a long period – and what’s so bad about that?
Chris Breese
Comments
Leave a comment