Manchester United Threaten to Sue Over Accusations

As the media interest around last weeks Fifa ruling against Chelsea for its transfer of Gael Kakuta from French club Lens in 2007, it is no wonder that other clubs are coming under fire from clubs who feel that they have been mistreated and had their youth players ’stolen’.

This summer Manchester United signed 16 year old Paul Pogba from French club Le Harve. At the time of the signing Le Harve President, Jean-Pierre Louvel, was publicly critical of United and alleged that United have offered money to Pogba’s parents in order to push through the signing. United denied that any such offers had been made and that the transfer was agreed within the laws set out by the world governing body, Fifa.

Since the announcement that Chelsea had breached the rules to sign Kakuta, a host of clubs have also been complaining about the signing of their own youngsters by large European clubs. Once again Jean-Pierre Louvel echoed his belief that Manchester United breached the rules in their signing of Pogba this summer. Now it appears that Man United have written to Le Harve threatening to sue the club if they continue to publish their accusations.

Interestingly enough, according to the BBC website, Fifa has received no complaint from Le Harve for the signing of Paul Pogba. From my opinion it looks like nothing more than sour grapes on behalf of Le Harve. Yes, the rules involving the signings of players under 18 need to be clarified and restricted, but the signing my very well be within the current rules of the game.

As it stands the signing of players under 18 is relatively cheap for large clubs because they have to pay less money to the original club for its development of the player. Therefore, the deal is a relatively small gamble. You take a chance on a youngster being the ‘next big thing’, but ultimately if they fail to show their potential then they have not cost the club a great deal of money.

However, the life of that player will definitely be altered. Moving across the world to a different country purely because of a football club, then finding out that you do not cut it at the club most be very difficult to deal with. I do not think that enough of these cases are talked about openly in the press. The press very much seem to focus on the affects of a player becoming hugely successful. An example would be Federico Macheda who signed from Lazio to Manchester United.

Lazio complained in the same way that Le Harve have complained this summer. But Macheda has already shown signs of becoming a world class player, leaving Lazio feeling robbed of a talented player. However, think about it from the point-of-view of the player for a moment, imagine uprooting your family and your life to move to a different country for a football team. Imagine if you fail to become a success, was it worth the uprooting and the large change in lifestyle?

Does a 16 year old really know what is best for them at that age? They see a big name like Real Madrid, Manchester United or Barcelona. But many of the players signed under youth contracts do not develop to become stars for those clubs. Players should have to remain within the same country under the age of 18 and then be allowed to decide whether or not they wish to pursue deals abroad.

Many clubs sit there blaming other specific clubs for the problem, but the truth is that almost all clubs are doing this. Every club wants the best players available to them and because of the state of the current rules this becomes very easy for larger teams. It is the rules that are wrong and that should be changed. Punishing clubs at this state will be a very pointless task. There is no doubt that Chelsea will appeal this decision and I would be at least 75% confident that the ban on transfers will be lifted.

Ammend the rules before punishing clubs.