Since Chelsea's recent signing ban, there has been a lot of talk about other clubs poaching youngsters from clubs, namely the French ones. As we all know, Chelsea were recently banned from signing any player until 2010. They were found guilty of breaking Gael Kakuta's contract with Lens in 2007. Now, Fifa have had almost three years to get all their evidence together to convict Chelsea of this, but is it too harsh? I am in complete support of the ruling as it's illegal to break a contract that binds a player to the club without any compensation. Surely Chelsea should of been charged an absurd fee instead of being banned. To me, this is much like the Eduardo incident. I'm sure there has been a lot of sly business going on behind-the-scenes in the footballing world, not just in England. The Tevez and Mascherano saga was another incident that involved two of England's top clubs but I believe this "player poaching" trend is worse. Now that Chelsea have been severely punished, Man Utd and City have also been accused of poaching players--Both from French clubs. Coincidence? Manchester United have stated that they will sue La Harve if they continue their allegations of losing Paul Pogba's in an illegal manner. I believe that the fact United want to sue for this incident shows that they are trying to hide something. If a small company accused Viacom of copyright infringement and Viacom retaliated by threatening to sue, I'm sure the little company would back down whether they were right or wrong. United could very well be guilty, but I doubt we'll hear more from that case unless La Harve are completely determined to put their financial stability on the line. Furthermore, City have been accused of stealing Jeremy Helan from Rennes recently. Rennes have also submitted a complaint to Fifa so we won't see the end of this one. Fifa are determined to undermine the Premiership so they'll be very persistent in this case. What are your guys thoughts?
The one that I am interested in is Leeds going after Everton after a tribunal set a fee on one of their youth. I'm not sure how much there is in the French claims or if they're just riding the wave of the claim against Chelsea, but two English clubs going after each other could have massive ramifications. I also find it somewhat humorous that over in the States, we go bananas when our kids get bought up by Hoffenheim, while the French are reaching bananas status in the opposite direction when their kids go to Chelsea and Man U.
Hmm, that is interesting. It seems the only thing the French clubs care about is their money which they rightly deserve. If their accusations are truthful, the clubs in question should be punished to the fullest extent.
I must have missed something, what was the Eduardo incident and how does it relate? He was an established player by the time he left Croatia, not some kid like Pogba and the Chelsea guy.
The fact that Fifa are stamping down on English clubs. Edit: It seems I went off on a rant and decided to not explain myself about Eduardo.
