By Mark Baber
November 13- According to a report in L’Equipe, Leonardo, the former Sporting Director of Paris Saint-Germain, is intending to sue the French Football Federation for €8.5 million in the wake of having had his suspension for barging a referee in the tunnel rescinded.
Leonardo was caught on camera barging into match referee Alexander Castro in the tunnel during a Ligue 1 match against Valenciennes in May 2013 after he had been angered by the sending off of Silva. The Brazilian was initially handed a nine month suspension which was then increased to thirteen months on appeal as Leonardo tried to argue he was himself barged accidentally into the referee.
[Readers can make up their own mind about this incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvNoU8pKIqk ]
However, Leonardo and his solicitors were not content to let the matter rest and took the issue to the Paris administrative tribunal. On this occasion, FIFA appears to have taken no action regarding the taking of a football matter to the civil courts and the administrative tribunal ruled that as Leonardo was not licensed by the French Federation the Federation did not have the legal power to punish him.
Having his punishment lifted, on what many would regard as a technicality, Leonardo is now arguing that he has suffered considerable financial and reputational losses. According to L’Equipe, the €8.5m figure is based on the €3.62m yearly salary Leonardo earned while working for PSG from July 2011 until the summer of 2013, but his legal team are also arguing that if he had not been suspended he would likely have taken over as PSG’s manager after Carlo Ancelotti departed for Real Madrid in June 2013.
What reputational losses Leonardo suffered is open to question, given any damage will likely have come from watching the video of the incident and that Leonardo’s reputation was severely impacted by the high profile, brutal elbowing of Tab Ramos in the 1994 World Cup, which caused the US international a skull fracture and which many feel should have resulted in a life-time ban.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_2YqLJX6hk
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