In case you’ve missed it this week, Watford currently find themselves in a legal dispute with Spanish side Cádiz over defender Mamadou Mbaye.
Basically, the 21-year-old joined Cádiz B from Watford in the summer, but the Hornets never sanctioned the deal.
They tried to get compensation, were turned away, so went to FIFA, who have subsequently banned Cádiz from signing players for two windows, Mbaye for four months and told him to pay compensation to Watford.
Cádiz and Mbaye have since both protested their innocence, with the player even claiming that any documents Watford have are false.
First, the newspaper says that, despite the way it’s been perceived, FIFA’s sanction is not a question of them targeting small teams as has been claimed.
They then move on to explain why Cádiz have been punished as they have, clarifying that the case was decided by FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber, who judge instances where there is a ‘breach of contract’.
Essentially, if a player signs for another club while he still has a contract with someone else, the new team ‘is held responsible’ .
In this case, the DRC judged that Mbaye had a contract with Watford and subsequently joined Cádiz without having ‘properly ended his working relationship’ with the Hornets.
Cádiz are the ones to blame, though, as they are seen as the ones responsible for the ‘breach of contract’ in the first place.
They now have ten days to request the full information from the ruling, and then CAS can get involved to appeal the decision, meaning this is going to be a story that rumbles on for a while yet.
