CAS issues landmark decision in Webster's case

Twelve years after the Bosman ruling shook the European football transfer system, the Swiss Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) issued a landmark decision on Wednesday in the case of the 25-year-old Scottish defender Andy Webster.

While Bosman lead to allow out-of-contract players to move to other clubs without transfer fees, Webster was the first player to invoke Article 17 of FIFA's regulations for the status and transfer of players, which allow a player under the age of 28 to end his contract after three years. Webster walk out on Heart of Midlothian for Wigan Athletic in 2006, a year before his contract ended.

FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber had earlier imposed on Webster a sanction of GBP 625,000, however Webster, lead by his agent Charles Duddy, who is qualified in contract and employment law, and heavily backed by Fifpro, the global players’ union, had appealed against this decision before the CAS.

Although Hearts claimed that the cost of replacing the defender would be GBP 4.6 million, the CAS was unwilling to consider any such subjective criteria since these would place an unfair onus on the player. It was pointed out that if clubs felt their part in increasing a player's value should be recognised in any compensation claim, then a player in turn ought be entitled to be compensated if his value decreased during the length of his contract.

The CAS ruled in favor of Webster, who would now only have to pay GBP 150,000 in compensation, in line with the remaining wages in the final year of his contract. Wigan and Webster should split the payment.

The decision means that players can now legally choose to terminate their contracts after three (or two) years of run, while the club can no longer put a totally subjective tag price on the player. Wages has been approved as the only subjective criteria for calculating the compensation in the event of a contract being breached under article 17.

FIFA's president, Sepp Blatter, a lawyer himself, reacted angrily to the CAS ruling. “The decision which CAS took is very damaging for football and is a pyrrhic victory for those players and their agents, who toy with the idea of rescinding contracts before they have been fulfilled,” Blatter said in a statement.

FIFA insisted that CAS had failed properly to interpret Article 17 of FIFA's regulations on the status and transfer of players, but acknowledged that the article put forward a player's remaining salary entitlements as one of the objective criteria available for determining compensation.

When the Bosman ruling came on to the statutes it was claimed it would bring about a downward pressure on transfer fees. That has not happened. As with all aspects of football finances, the market will determine what effect the Webster case will have on football contracts.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.