If ever there was a transfer that looked destined for the Court of Arbitration for Sport, it was Jean-Kevin Augustin’s move to Leeds.
The Frenchman moved to Elland Road on loan in the January transfer window, signing a deal that included a clause that meant Leeds would have to pay €21m for him if they ended up promoted to the Premier League.
That is something they obviously ended up doing, but Augustin would play little part in the success, managing just three appearances and 48 minutes of football.
Leeds, predictably, didn’t want to pay that price and haven’t, instead arguing that the clause wasn’t valid because at the time it should have been activated, they were still in the Championship because of the Coronavirus lockdown.
Their refusal to pay has seriously annoyed RB Leipzig, with Commercial Director of Sport Florian Scholz warning yesterday that they would take it to court.
They explain that Augustin is ‘currently not wanted’ in Leeds or Leipzig, with him currently training on his own away from the German club.
They ‘no longer feel responsible’ for the striker and are ‘refraining’ from paying his salary, instead believing he is a Leeds player and they should deal with it.
Marcelo Bielsa and co have also ‘ended the collaboration’ though, believing that the €21m purchase obligation they agreed on was ‘null and void’ because his loan contract ended on June 30th and they weren’t promoted until July.
Leipzig obviously dispute that and Kicker say they are ‘legally on the safe side’. So far they haven’t wanted to do that but ‘this will change now’ as the first payment on the €21m is ‘imminent’.
If Leeds miss that, which seems extremely likely to happen, Leipzig want to sue the club at FIFA to get their money.
In truth, it’s a big mess that’s left Augustin stuck in the middle and looks extremely likely to be sorted out by CAS in the coming months.
