The Court of Arbitration for Sport are set to hear RB Leipzig’s case against Leeds United next Tuesday as the long-running saga finally gets its date in court.
That’s according to Kicker, who say CAS have finalised a date for the ‘transfer dispute’ between the two clubs to finally be heard.
The newspaper explains that the International Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear the case between the two clubs after nearly two years of battling between them.
For those that don’t know, Jean-Kévin Augustin joined Leeds on loan in January 2020 as Marcelo Bielsa sought out an attacker to bolster their push towards the Premier League.
That deal included a purchase clause worth €21m if Leeds were promoted to the Premier League, which they were, albeit with Augustin playing very little part in that success.
As a result, the agreement with Leipzig stipulated they would have to pay €21m, but Leeds argued that, as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic seeing the season halted and then finishing after June 30th, their agreement was ‘null and void’.
Leipzig naturally argued differently and took the case to FIFA, who agreed with the German side and ruled in their favour.
Leeds, though, continued to contest the issue, and so it ended up at CAS, where it has been stuck in the backlog of issues caused by the pandemic.
It’s yet to be heard, and both the clubs have been forced to wait for their turn, while Augustin has since moved to France in an effort to get his career back on track.
Their opportunity to be heard in court has now come around, however, and they will appear in front of the CAS on Tuesday to plead their cases.
How long it will take for a decision to be made from that point remains to be seen, but it’s usually not a quick process, and that hasn’t been helped by the backlog caused by COVID.
Still, at least the case is now going to be presented to the court, meaning this saga is in the home stretch, and Leeds will soon know definitively whether they have to pay that €21m or not.
