This week has seen the return of Carlos Tevez from his extended period of leave in his home of Argentina.
It remains to be seen how relations are between Tevez and his club Manchester City. It looks like the only way the parties can avoid a long and protracted legal dispute is for a complete and utter reconciliation whereby both the player and the club put behind them the traumas of the last few months. This is not going to be easy for either party and will test the managerial skills of Roberto Mancini.
So what is the legal position?
Already, from a legal point of view there was a spat in the autumn of 2011 when Manchester City tried to impose a fine of £1 million-constituting almost 6 weeks wages. Tevez unsurprisingly challenged that fine and engaged the services of Gordon Taylor from the Professional Footballers Association (PFA).
That resulted in Tevez successfully challenging that initial punishment and a two-week fine (the maximum in accordance with the player’s contract) was substituted thereby saving Tevez in excess of half a £1 million.
However, with Tevez absenting himself from his duties over the last few months the club have been able to impose a fresh two-week fine and clearly this has cost Tevez an awful lot of money.
It has been well documented that Tevez sought during the January window a move from Manchester City. He was courted by AC Milan and Inter-Milan with talk of a move to Paris St Germain. Only time will reveal how close he was to successfully making a move but right now he remains a Manchester City player and under contract until June 2014.
A fit, healthy and motivated Carlos Tevez is worth £50 million and that is where Manchester City have this dilemma. If they wish to recover a successful transfer fee then clearly they’re going to have to play him and place him in the shop window. That becomes a challenge for the manager who has publicly stated that Tevez would never play for Manchester City again.
The legal implications of all of this very interesting. Both Tevez and the club will have engaged the services of lawyers and it is almost inevitable that there would have been an analysis of Article 15 of FIFA’s regulations on the status and transfer of players.
Article 15 states “an established professional who has, in the course of the season, appeared in fewer than 10% of the official matches in which his club has been involved may terminate his contract prematurely on the grounds of sporting just cause. Due consideration shall be given to the players circumstances in the appraisal of such cases. The existence of a sporting just cause shall be established on a case-by case basis”
No doubt Tevez will argue that his manager’s comments have effectively prevented him from playing his trade and he may have a powerful argument that he should be entitled to terminate his contract.
Manchester City of course will argue that Tevez absenting himself and thereby preventing him being picked for the team is a way of circumventing and invoking Article 15.
It will be fascinating to see what develops in the next few days and weeks.
If this was a genuine commercial dispute, one would imagine a commercial judge almost ordering the parties to try and negotiate a resolution via alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
There is no doubt that Manchester City are in a difficult position. They will have to analyse and consider all of their options. Similarly, Tevez himself will need to reappraise his position. He may have to swallow his pride, apologise to his manager and keep his head down with a view to the manager regaining confidence in his playing ability. In the end, both parties may end up winners.
If Tevez can get himself fit and in the right frame of mind he may just be the ’X Factor’ which is needed to drive Manchester City towards premiership success. From Tevez’s point of view he can regain credibility as a world-class player and that in itself may encourage other top European clubs to acquire his services for next season and beyond.
This is a typical case where specialist sports lawyers are needed in order to assess the situation on a day by day basis.