NEW DELHI: The All India Football Federation’s Players’ Status Committee finally has a verdict on the dispute between Chennai City FC and FC Pune City over Spanish midfielder Nestor Gordillo and it’s in the I-League club’s favour.
The committee, chaired by Babu Mather, ended the saga that had started in May, by imposing a ban on registering new players over two transfer windows on the Indian Super League outfit and a four-month ban on the player. “... under article 12(1) of the AIFF RSTP, the player is directed to serve a four-month ban from playing in any official matches organised by or under the aegis of AIFF from the date of communication of this decision.
Moreover, the player is directed to pay a one-time compensation amounting to three months of the player’s salary to CCFC, along with a fine of `50,000 to AIFF, both being payable within 15 days from the date of communication of this decision,” the judgement, a copy of which is with this newspaper, said.
“Further, the committee finds that Pune City is held liable for inducing such breach of the contract and hence... is banned from registering any new players either nationally or internationally, for two registration periods which shall have effect from the upcoming registration period i.e the second registration period of the 2019-20 season which is from 1st January to 31st January 2020 and the first registration period of the 2020-21 season... along with a fine of `5,00,000 to be paid to AIFF.”
The dispute had started when Chennai City complained to the AIFF in May that Gordillo, who had a contract with the club till May 2020, had signed an agreement with Pune City. The player had contested that his contract with Chennai City was void because he had yet to be paid salary for two months and bonuses, but the I-League champs were able to prove that all the dues had been cleared.
“We stand vindicated and this sets a precedent as well,” Chennai City owner Rohit Ramesh said. “Major source of our revenue comes from transfers. We do the hard work of scouting the player, invest time and energy on him and, most importantly, create a valuation for the player. If this verdict didn’t come out, it would have been a huge loss for football.”