Tuesday 8 September 2009

MCFC accused of poaching

Quite a big news story breaking this morning - City have been accused by Rennes of poaching teenager Jérémy Hélan. This is obviously in light of RC Lens' successful case against Chelsea regarding Gaël Kakuta and Le Havre's attempt to hold Manchster United to account over Paul Pogba. Rennes' Technical Director Pierre Dréossi said:
'Manchester City must now realise the consequences of their attitude in the Hélan case as it is even more illegal than (Gael) Kakuta.

'We have referred this to FIFA. For us it was strange to have no discussion from City and now, in the week after the FIFA declaration on Chelsea, I would hope that it will be the same thing for Manchester City.

'Kakuta signed up for just a possibility of a full contract. For Hélan there was definitely one there, under the terms of the pre-contract agreement, because he had played for his country.

'Manchester United said it was not possible to negotiate with us but for City now this is dangerous, though we are not expecting a decision from FIFA for perhaps several years.'

Of course, Dréossi isn't exactly a disinterested observer here. But it does look like a potential long term problem for the club. I don't know the details here, but it's probably safe to say that Chelsea never thought the Kakuta case would end as it did. Poaching teenagers is pretty unsavoury and I suppose I'd rather City didn't do it. But the teams we're trying to compete it all do it. And in the cases of Cesc Fàbregas and potentially Kiko Macheda, it seems to work rather well. It's all in the game.

3 comments:

Simon said...

Again, I've heard another side to this - apparently the club & the player are also in disagreement as to what was actually agreed at the time. So I don't think this is as clear cut as the Chelsea case.

newsoftheblues said...

Correct Helen had been banned from playing after going against his own contract and was et to join united.

city stepped in sometime after! and have got the ITC which must go through the french fa!

City should be in their full right with european employment laws to sign players like Helen

Sheffield Blue said...

i disagree that its all in the game. i sincerely hope city have not broken the rules, as a transfer ban would hurt us more than any other side (that being our principal advantage at the moment), but i also hope fifa manage to put in some rules that protect smaller clubs. imagine if swp had been poached (i know we were the only club who thought he wasnt 'too small' but just theoretically) before we sold him to chelsea, basically saving the club financially. i would rather the game was cleaned up slightly, and then we wouldnt have to compete with other 'big' (bully!) clubs like united in this area.
altough i did like the way we responded to these allegations with a calm rebuttal, whereas united responded in their natural way: threatening to bully the other club out of it by taking them to court. no wonder everyone hates them.