Posted by By John Egbokhan, Sports Vanguard on
FIFA are expected to order Flying Eagles' star, John Mikel Obi to honour the agreement he signed with Lyn Club of Oslo, the chief executive of the Norwegian outfit, Morgan Anderson has told Sports Vanguard.
FIFA are expected to order Flying Eagles' star, John Mikel Obi to honour the agreement he signed with Lyn Club of Oslo, the chief executive of the Norwegian outfit, Morgan Anderson has told Sports Vanguard.
Obi, who shone like a thousand stars at the last World Youth Championship and was subsequently adjudged the tourney's second Most Valuable Player, has been enmeshed in a messy transfer deal, involving three clubs, Manchester United, Chelsea and his current club, Lyn of Oslo.
Although it was reported that he signed a contract to move to Premiership giants, Manchester United, the young Nigerian claimed he was coerced into the deal by Anderson, insisting that he rather preferred to star in Roman Abrahamovic's billionaires side, Chelsea.
The matter was referred to the FIFA's Dispute Resolution Committee, which met earlier this month and is today expected to give its verdict on the raging transfer saga.
In a rare telephone interview with Sports Vanguard, Anderson said the club presented a strong case backed with documented and television evidences to FIFA, arguing that the club did not coerce Obi to sign for Manchester United, insisting further, that the Nigerian was quite enthusiastic to sign for the club.
'We have presented a strong case with materials to FIFA and we have confirmation that the contract is valid and legal. We are confident that FIFA will tell Mikel to honour the contract he signed with us and Manchester United, who are supposed to start playing Mikel in January 2006, when he is expected to get his work permit under the exceptional talent rule We believe that Mikel will be told to return to Lyn because he has an existing contract with us and the people here are glad to have him back when he comes.
'If we look at the legality of the contract, Mikel goes to Manchester. Although he has a contract with us till 2006, Mikel never did love to go to Manchester United and he got his wish, with a fantastic salary, backed with the fact that he would get a starting place in the team because of the special talent rule, which Manchester told the FA they used in securing Mikel's signature.
'So it's totally untrue for insinuations to be made that I forced Mikel to sign the Manchester deal because any player would love to play for the richest club in the world. Rather, I believe that it is the influence of the agent or agents who say they are representing the player that confused the boy into not honouring his contract with us", added Anderson, who denied ever exploiting the young boy.
'We never exploited Mikel, rather, we gave him everything that he wanted. We even gave him a brand new Audi A4 car to ease his movement alongside the other Nigerians in our team. Our team has excellent relationship with the players and we want the best for them As things stand now, we are awaiting Mikel's return because as an exceptional player, we know his presence in our squad would boost our chances of winning the league, which is in its second stanza", Anderson said.
On how to forestall a possible transfer saga involving young Africans in the future, Anderson said the players' union must curb the influence which agents wield over players' parents, who in turn, coerce their unassuming kids into signing multiple contracts with different agents, who he said, are only out for their personal gains.
'Even available evidence shows that the contract Mikel singed with the other agent would see the latter taking home the chunk of the player's salary. The challenge for the players' union is to ensure that young Africans are tutored on the need to stick to an agent and the dictates of their contract. It pains to see a gifted player like Mikel involved in this mess but we hope things would be resolved for the good of the game and player", added Anderson.