Fifa yet to receive complaint against United over Pogba deal

Published on Friday 4 September 2009 22:37

FIFA says it has received no complaint so far about Manchester United’s signing of 16-year-old French midfielder Paul Pogba last month.

French club Le Havre have said they will ask Fifa to investigate, claiming the teenager had agreed to join them, raising fears United could suffer the same punishment as Chelsea who have been banned from signing any new players until January 2011 for inducing Gael Kakuta to break his contract. But football’s world governing body said yesterday they have yet to receive a complaint. A Fifa spokesman said: “There has been no receipt of any complaint by Le Havre regarding this player as of today.”

United would launch a vigorous defence of their position if the case was referred to Fifa as they insist they have done nothing wrong. A club spokesman said: “It is complete nonsense. Everything has been done within Uefa guidelines.”

However, Le Havre managing director Alain Belsoeur claims to have documentation showing United offered inducements for Pogba to join them and has vowed to include it in submissions to Fifa.

“We are still pursuing our case,” said Belsoeur. “It is a very serious case. We are confident that we’ll win because it is in the best interests not just of our club but of sport.”

At stake is a rule saying a young player being developed in France must sign his first professional contract with the club coaching him unless the French Football Federation (FFF) issues him with a transfer certificate. “In Pogba’s case, the Federation refused to issue the transfer certificate that he needed to go abroad,” Belsoeur said. “Our lawyers are in charge of this and will deal with it in the club’s best interests.

“The problem is English clubs feel those are French rules that do not apply to them when they want to sign a youngster. Fifa have just told them they do and sent out a strong signal to the clubs acting like predators which tells them: ‘Stop behaving that way, or it will hurt’.”