Chelsea Balls: The Richest Teams Dope The Transfer System To Ensure Unequal Competition
THE loan system isn’t fait, is it? It favours the rich clubs. It favours Chelsea.
Everton’s on-loan Romelu Lukaku is prevented from playing against parent club Chelsea. The striker can knock them in against Chelsea’s rivals but not prove himself against the club that owns his contract.
Chelsea have been loaning young players to Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem (buy the cream of the budding crop when they are young before they get expensive) . But their former chairman Merab Jordania says: “I wanted to be champion of the Netherlands, but London did not. Ambition is fine but Vitesse may not be in the Champions League with Chelsea.”
And Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo says the club can’t play goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois in the Champions League semi-finals should the Spanish side draw Chelsea in the final four as it would trigger a clause in the Belgian keeper’s contract that would see the Spaniards forced to pay a significant lump sum to his parent club.
Courtois has been on loan at Atleti from Chelsea for the past three seasons and, should the two sides be drawn together, Cerezo confirmed to Spanish radio station Onda Cero that his side would have to stump up “a large sum of money” – anywhere from €2.5million to €8million across the two legs depending on which report you believe – to their opponents in order to field the 21-year-old Belgian stopper.
“The problem is whether Courtois can play if we get Chelsea in the draw,” Cerezo said. “There is something in the contract. For him to play we would have to pay a large quantity of money, a figure we cannot pay.”
As it stands, UEFA rules are in place to supposedly prevent players from being unable to feature against any other given club, though Platini’s gang are powerless to stop clubs inserting such clauses into loan contracts.
Posted: 10th, April 2014 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
