Shakhtar Donetsk are reportedly considering taking legal action against Tottenham Hotspur over the signing of Manor Solomon.
The 24-year-old winger joined Tottenham on a free transfer last summer as the North London club made the most of the war in Ukraine and snapped up the Israel international on a bargain.
During the war in Ukraine, FIFA allowed all non-Ukrainian nationals playing in the country to suspend their contracts and move to clubs abroad. Tottenham to advantage of the situation and signed the player back then.
Shakhtar chief Serhiy Palkin has now claimed that he has a bad feeling towards the North London club, because of the way they took advantage of FIFA regulation and signed the player. Palkin believes that Solomon had a market value of €25 million at the time. He feels that Shakhtar invested in the player and developed him into a quality performer, but they had to let him go without any return.
Palkin has now revealed to The Tepegraph that they requested Tottenham to include a sell-on fee of around 30-40% in his contract, but the North London club refused to agree to that either. Tottenham were reportedly willing to offer them a 10% sell-on fee.
“It’s very strange that everybody says we are one football family, when one of the top clubs receives a player free of charge and the market value of this player is up to €25 million (£21.15 million). We invested in this player and developed this player for this kind of value.
“I even said to Tottenham: ‘Guys, I don’t need money for him now. Let’s have some kind of sell-on fee in the future like 30 or 40 per cent. That would be enough for us.’ But they said: ‘No, no, we cannot give you. We’ll give you 10 per cent.’ I said: ‘Guys, that’s not serious.’ Giving us 10 per cent is not respectful. You behave not like the football family. You behave like a robber on the road. It’s not correct. Therefore, at this moment we will see the next steps”.
Shakhtar have now stopped negotiations with Tottenham and they will make a decision on whether to take legal action against the North London club in the near future.
Meanwhile, Solomon’s debut season with Tottenham was plagued with injuries and he barely made any impact. It will be interesting to see if he can bounce back strongly next season and establish himself as a key player for the club.
I do not see how Tottenham have broken any regulations here, it seems that Shaktar’s chairman is trying to argue from an opportunistic basis with the threat of legal but knowingly understands he does not really have a case that stands up, this is old news with no substance.