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Shakhtar Donetsk chief executive Sergei Palkin has accused Tottenham of “disrespect” in offering “peanuts” during negotiations for winger Manor Solomon and threatened to take the club to court if a resolution is not found soon.
Solomon joined Spurs on a free transfer last July by taking advantage of a FIFA ruling which enables foreign players in Russia and Ukraine to unilaterally suspend their contracts following the outbreak of war in the region.
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Shakhtar are one of several clubs to have contested the changes to Annex 7 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, but after appeals were rejected by FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the Ukrainian club launched legal action against specific clubs they believed to have received “unjust enrichment” by utilising the clause.
Solomon was under contract at Shakhtar until the end of 2023, meaning Spurs would have had to pay some sort of transfer fee had Annex 7 not existed. Shakhtar paid Maccabi Petah Tikva €6.5 million ($7.05m) for the winger in January 2019 and believe he had a market value of €20m.
ESPN revealed in October that the two clubs were in discussions over a possible compensation figure but those negotiations have collapsed after a failure to find an agreement.
“Since October, we have been diligently engaged in negotiations with Tottenham,” Palkin told ESPN.
“But finally Tottenham has not acted in a manner that reflects the principles of fairness and equity. In this situation, we feel a sense of disrespect from Tottenham.
“If you go deeply in my feelings during these months we have negotiated. Actually, we would like to appeal to Spurs chairman Daniel Levy to act in good faith and uphold the shared values of the European football family to find a fair way to compensate us in this transfer, what we are talking about.”
Negotiations were taking place between Palkin and Rebecca Caplehorn, Tottenham’s director of football administration and governance, with Spurs offering to pay 10% of any sell-on fee should Solomon leave the club. Solomon has played just six times for Tottenham having been sidelined since October with a knee injury.
“They offered something but it is not even serious what they offered,” said Palkin. “It is something like peanuts to show they are ready to give something but this is not comparable with what they received.
“A club like Tottenham cannot behave like this. It is a top, well-known worldwide club and to behave like they are doing is very strange.
“We negotiated with them for many months, we respected them and we didn’t ask to be honest for some kind of huge amount. We didn’t even ask for money. We said ‘OK, give us a sell-on fee for the future.
“When you receive a player free and this player is worth €20m — the transfer market always undervalues players — it means something. It means we developed and invested in this player. You should respect our work. If we all say we are one football family and after that you receive a player for free and don’t pay attention to our side, it is not fair.
“For me, 20%, 30% would be fair value. In this situation that would be fair value.”
Shakhtar have launched legal cases arising from losing another player, Mateus Tetê, firstly to Lyon on loan and then to Galatasaray.
They are suing Lyon, as Palkin claims they pocketed a €1m fee when the winger joined Leicester on a further loan in January, while there is another case against Tetê and Galatasaray together after he joined the Turkish side in August using Annex 7.
Tetê had a contract with Shakhtar through to the end of 2023. A date for a hearing in both cases is yet to be set.
Palkin is ready to go to court again but believes Spurs should act in good faith towards a team trying to continue operating in a warzone.
“We are going to bring legal action against Spurs if needed,” said Palkin. “But in any case, why I am appealing to the chairman of Spurs is because I believe he will give his hand and support us.
“We have war in the country and they should pay attention to this. When the war started in our country, the whole democratic world supported us. I am appealing to this kind of moral, to help us.
“But in any case, in our arguments with FIFA, yes we lost in CAS and it is difficult to fight against the system. But in any case, we believe if clubs receive something for free it is unjust enrichment.
“We will go to court and do our best to get some kind of compensation because we invest a lot of money into players and it is not possible to have this kind of situation. We need to share our problems and get help from clubs. If FIFA and the ECA say we are one football family, we should be a family and not like this.”
A Tottenham spokesman told ESPN: “We made a donation to Shakhtar’s foundation following the friendly last summer and we continue to discuss this situation with them but not via the press.”
The two clubs played a friendly in August which raised £505,000 for Shakhtar’s social foundation to implement support and aid projects for those affected by the war.
Sources at FIFA reiterated to ESPN that each player’s situation is judged on a case-by-case basis so players cannot automatically leave on a free transfer.
Various adjustments to Annex 7 have also been made with Ukrainian clubs’ financial health in mind. They include players and staff wanting to use Annex 7 having to inform their team in writing by July 1 and those who extended their contracts after March 7, 2022 cannot now suspend their agreements.
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