By David Gold
November 15 – FC Sion President Christian Constantin has begun a fresh battle with football authorities by demanding that FIFA pay his club damages after forward Dragan Mrdja returned from international duty with a serious injury.
The Serbian forward suffered a knee injury which would keep him out of action for several months, much to the anger of his club.
“We will write to FIFA and the Serbian federation asking for damages to the value of several million euros,” Constantin told Swiss newspaper Nouvelliste.
“It’s necessary to solve this problem where we are obliged to put players at the service of national teams and receive no damages when they return to the club with serious injuries.”
The case reignites the issue over teams who release players for international duty, only for them to return injured, with a number of teams, including those represented by the European Clubs Association (ECA) wanting comprehensive insurance policies in place to compensate them in such cases.
Major European teams also want fewer international friendlies played during the club season, and the ECA is currently negotiating with UEFA and FIFA to resolve this particular issue.
FIFA introduced a scheme to compensate clubs for injuries during the World Cup in South Africa last summer, and some major nations have similar schemes in place in case players are injured in friendlies.
But some smaller nations are not able to insure their players and guarantee that they can pay out compensation in case of injury, as seems to be the case with Mrdja.
In taking up this case, Sion and Constantin have opened up a new front in their battle with world football’s governing body.
They were kicked out of the Europa League this season after fielding five players signed in contravention of a FIFA transfer ban against Celtic in qualifying games.
They are currently appealing the decision and UEFA could yet be forced to reinstate them in the competition pending the outcome of a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, currently set for November 24.
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