Webster rule will be 'very damaging', warns Blatter

Published on Thursday 31 January 2008 21:15

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has criticised the Court of Arbitration for Sport's judgment in the Andy Webster case and claims it will prove "very damaging" for the world game.

Webster appealed against a fine of 625,000 which was imposed on him by Fifa's dispute resolution chamber for breaking his contract at Hearts to join Wigan in 2006.

The Scotland international, who is currently on loan at Rangers, quit Hearts after three years of a four-year contract, taking advantage of article 17 in Fifa's player status and transfer regulations.

He moved outside the 'protected period' and in his case the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided Webster would only have to pay up the final year of his contract to secure his release.

That meant Webster, now 25, paid 150,000 to move when Hearts were seeking compensation of 4.6 million.

Blatter said: "The decision which CAS took on 30 January is very damaging for football and a Pyrrhic victory for those players and their agents, who toy with the idea of rescinding contracts before they have been fulfilled.

"CAS did not properly take into consideration the specificity of sport as required by article 17 paragraph one, of the regulations on the status and transfer of players. Because of this unfortunate decision, the principle of contractual stability, as agreed in 2001 with the European Commission as part of the new transfer regulations and which restored order to the transfer system, has been deemed less important than the short-term interests of the player involved."

Fifa insists that breaking a contract without just cause remains "unjustified" and defended its right to decide on 625,000 as appropriate compensation, even though the CAS, in the Webster decision, insisted there was no straight-forward reason why the governing body would reach that sum.

Fifa is concerned that any player at the same stage of a contract as Webster reached, will know the cost of buying themselves out of a deal. Moreover, Fifa claims agents will tout players to clubs, revealing the price for signing players under contract on the basis of salary.

Fifa could review its policies on transfers in the wake of the Webster ruling, now the loophole has been exploited. In its statement, Fifa said: "Should the protection of contractual stability finally indeed be subverted, Fifa will consider appropriate measures to safeguard the special nature of sport with regard to employment contracts."