Adrian Mutu must pay Chelsea more than 17 million euros (US$20.7 million) in compensation after losing his final appeal in a five-year legal case over a positive cocaine test.
The Swiss Federal Court yesterday followed the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and FIFA in ruling that Mutu must pay the sum — a record for a soccer case.
It was unclear whether the Romania international will be able to pay the full amount.
Romanian television reported last year that the total compensation would likely bankrupt the 31-year-old, who is currently serving a nine-month doping ban in Italy.
Chelsea terminated Mutu’s contract after he failed a drug test for cocaine in 2004. He still had nearly four years left on his contract with the Premier League club.
Chelsea received no compensation when Mutu rebuilt his career in Italy, first with Juventus and since 2006 with Fiorentina.
FIFA awarded damages to Chelsea because Mutu breached his contract, a decision upheld by the CAS.
Mutu took his appeals to Switzerland’s supreme court, which ruled that the CAS followed correct legal process when it dismissed Mutu’s challenge to the FIFA decision.
The federal panel also considered whether the amount of compensation awarded to Chelsea violated legal principles.
“It reached the conclusion that this was not the case and the Romanian footballer’s appeal was unfounded,” the court said in a statement.
Mutu must pay 17,173,990 euros plus annual interest of 5 percent applied from Sept. 12, 2008. The federal panel also ordered him to pay court costs totaling 145,000 Swiss francs (US$127,000).
Mutu’s career prospects also have dimmed while waiting for the final court judgment.
He is currently suspended for nine months after twice testing positive for the banned stimulant sibutramine after Italian league and cup matches in January.
Mutu is expected to leave Fiorentina before he can resume playing on Oct. 29.
Mutu, then 24, arrived at Chelsea when billionaire owner Roman Abramovich funded a spending spree after buying the club in 2003.
Chelsea paid 22.5 million euros to sign the striker from Italian club Parma, but 14 months later he tested positive for cocaine. Mutu did not challenge the test result.
The English Football Association banned Mutu for seven months and Chelsea terminated his contract.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later