Justice or a Joke? Lens absolve Kakuta and Chelsea

The latest news from Chelsea will knock the John Terry story off the back pages for about 10 minutes. Any other time and this would be the biggest story in football for years.

This afternoon the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that they had ratified an out of Court settlement reached between Chelsea Football Club and RC Lens over Gael Kakuta‘s move to Stamford Bridge in 2007.

Justice or a Joke?

Kakuta became a household name in early September of last year when FIFA ruled against Chelsea in the dispute with Lens and imposed a two-window transfer ban on the Premier League side for inducing the player to sign a contract without the consent of his then employers.

At the centre of the disagreement was the existing professional contract held between Lens and Kakuta, a document whose legitimacy was continually called in to question by the London club as it struggled to find a solution. The new joint agreement announced today between Lens and Chelsea recognizes explicitly the omission of any contract between Lens and Kakuta thereby nullifying original charges that Chelsea had induced a breach of contract.

Five months after receiving the landmark ruling from FIFA, Chelsea is free to spend again. But is this decision really a surprise?

It would certainly clear up a couple of recent acts of peculiarity; Chelsea’s reluctance to shell out on players in the last transfer window; Carlo Ancelotti’s audacious remarks about running around in the snow naked if they did. We always questioned why a club of Chelsea’s financial stature and football ambition, facing an 18 month transfer ban, was disinterested in splashing the cash. While we will never know what happened behind the scenes between Chelsea and Lens officials what is clear from the settlement is, with all due respect to Chelsea who always claimed their innocence, where there’s smoke there’s fire.

Chelsea will be paying for costs associated with Kakuta‘s training during his stay with Lens, as originally mandated by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber last year. But according to Chelsea’s Bruce Buck, as revealed on the club’s website, this is purely done “in an act of good faith and… without recognising any liability,”

The FIFA rules on transfers of young players need review. We cannot object to Kakuta deciding that he would rather play for Chelsea. As Arsene Wenger said at the time, a talented music student at a lesser music school moves to the Royal School of Music if he is able to do so. A young footballer should be able to do the same. But the FIFA rules need to have a clear and agreed “tariff” so that a top notch academy gets properly compensated.

While Sir Alex Ferguson will be kicking himself at the news of Chelsea’s new found freedom, the good news is that one of the brightest young talents in world football can get his career back on track and focus on what’s really important: football.

Taking aim: Kakuta is ready for the big time