https://www.areanapoli.it/varie/il-...tford-ecco-quanto-risparmiera-adl_358233.html Watford have lost their case against Napoli on the transfer of Zuniga. The agreement between the clubs was that Watford would pay Euro3m if Zuniga played 12 games for at least 30 minutes. Zuniga played 11 Premier League games and two under 23 games. Watfrod argued that the under 23 games didn't count. The FIFA player status commission disagreed and found in favour of Napoli. the transfer is deemed to have taken place and Watford must pay the transfer fee.
I love that this is in the transfer section. 3m for a player that doesn’t even play for us and seemingly we never even therefore sold. Pozzo model.
I suppose they wouldn't if someone had been sharp enough to explicitly exclude them from the contract.
As it appears Napoli have won the case, then I expect there was a certain degree of ambiguity in the contract which stated something like 12 Watford appearances, but not 12 first team appearances or something along those lines. It was a mess-up on our part and they now have to pay £3m. Now that does open a can of worms, in that Napoli transferred 'our' player to Atletico Nacional, but it was a free transfer. Had the transfer been of monetary value, then I think there would be grounds for compensation, but being a free transfer, maybe not. I think we've got to chalk this one up to experience and move on.
IIRC Zuniga went back to Napoli who then loaned him out to a Colombian team. If technically he was our player then, then Napoli should be paying us loan fees for that period. This whole saga whiffs a bit. I'd charge them €4M for loaning our player back to them.
How can they transfer him if they claim they believed he was our player ? Or had that "deemed" contract expired by then ?
It's murky waters for sure...….they could claim Watford gave him back for free! Who knows the ins and outs of it all. As I say, it's probably best to draw a line under it, pay the money and move on. We may well do business with Napoli in the future and it's not worth going after them over something like this, IMO.
Also makes up for the extremely dodgy Britos deal Napoli sign Allan from Udinese, and as part of that deal Watford get a free CB? Hmmmm.
Watford seem to have some utter incompetents on the staff. Only in football would anyone say "So X didn't read the contract and it cost the firm £3m, oh well never mind move on". And let's face it, this is the latest in a line of expensive admin ****-ups. I guess Gino wasn't around for the MBA module on choosing the right team to support your business.
I'm currently working on a contract with a client for about 150k per year. There is an extensive and detailed process from both sides, where every single word and definition is covered and discussed. How on earth this isn't the case where £3m is at stake is hilarious. I wish I could get involved with being a football agent or something. Just once I could take a stupid, desperate club to the cleaners and be set for life.
Another Pozzo masterstroke. I am getting tired of all this WINNING. Oh wait, it says we lost. Nevermind.
This is a truly bizarre situation. If we supposedly should have bought the player, then he's ours. That means Napoli don't have the right to sell him, so they sold a player they have no right to. In essence their position is "we sold them this player and they owe us money" while they also act as the owner of the player and then sold him on. Given that the player has moved a couple of time since this situation arose, the smart decision in a position of ambiguity would have been to rule on the side that maintains the status quo. Instead, we have a situation where Napoli recouped a transfer fee AND also moved the player on elsewhere (possibly as a makeweight). Odd to say the least.
The Pozzo staff roster is a hive of incompetence. This is laughable. Any accountability here for the buffoon then cost us £3m for not doing their job properly or is it just shrug and move on to the next idiotic move?
We probably stuffed Mariappa in at full back a couple of times as well, nodding smugly that it would prevent Napoli getting their fee if we didn’t use Zuniga.
If I remember, did he not play for anyone for about a half year afterwards because he was still registered with us, despite not being named in any squad for Napoli? It basically finished his career. I wonder if he can now claim compensation as well?