By Matt Scott
August 15 – Manchester United’s approach for Marcos Rojo (pictured) has descended into open conflict between Sporting Clube de Portugal and the player-investment firm that claims a substantial financial interest in the Argentina international defender.
In a statement released on Thursday and strongly disputed by the board of the Doyen Sports Investment player fund, Sporting alleged it had received “various abusive text messages” from the chief executive, Nelio Lucas. One such message it claimed to be quoting appeared to threaten that the player would “begin to cause problems in the academy” if Rojo’s transfer to the Premier League club were not approved.
Sporting’s near-1,000-word statement seemed also to imply Lucas posed as a member of a Manchester United delegation that visited the Estádio José Alvalade unannounced earlier this month. Sporting further alleged there had been attempts at “pressure and interference systematically being provoked by Doyen, namely with an insistence that their player would not play in the [Teresa Herrera pre-season] Tournament.”
Ultimately Lisbon claimed these were sufficient grounds to “proceed with the termination by just cause of the contracts with Doyen” for the players Rojo and Zakaria Labyad, which it claimed were in any case invalid.
The club’s press release provoked a strongly worded response from Doyen. “Doyen Sports hereby deplores and firmly repudiates the false allegations in Sporting’s press release in relation to the fund and its CEO,” it said in a statement signed “the Board”.
“Doyen Sports considers unacceptable Sporting’s attempt to avoid its contractual obligations on the basis of fully ungrounded nullities of contracts validly entered into with Doyen Sports.
“Inclusively [sic], the current Management of Sporting already expressly prevailed [sic] itself of the contractual terms, not disputing their validity, notably for the payment of the last instalment promptly paid by Doyen Sports in relation to the player Marcos Rojo in November 2013.
“Doyen Sports maintains that all legal and valid obligations must be complied with and will take all necessary actions to fully protect its rights and its reputation, already having instructed its lawyers to act accordingly.”
It is the first time such a public light has been cast on the activities of a player-investment fund and, unless the legal dispute is averted, will be only the first exchanges in what could prove a lengthy and costly wrangle for both parties.
Related article: http://www.insideworldfootball.com/matt-scott/13267-matt-scott-player-trades-boost-third-party-balance-sheets
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