Lampard considers walking out on his Chelsea contract
· Blues reject £7.95m offer from Internazionale
· England midfielder could now 'do a Webster' to leave
* Dominic Fifield
* The Guardian,
* Thursday July 10, 2008
* Article history
Frank Lampard may exploit the 'Webster ruling' if he is not allowed to leave Stamford Bridge for Internazionale. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Frank Lampard has explored the possibility of exploiting the Webster ruling to walk away from the final year of his contract at Chelsea, risking the wrath of Fifa and effectively putting himself at the mercy of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), after the London club rejected Internazionale's £7.95m offer for the England midfielder.
Inter were rebuffed yesterday, with the Chelsea chief executive, Peter Kenyon, insistent that Lampard would be held to the final year of his contract at Stamford Bridge. Yet relations between the 30-year-old and the club's hierarchy appear to have fractured beyond repair, with no agreement likely on the four-year deal that has been on the table for some 18 months, prompting the player's representative to explore the legal implications of following Andy Webster's lead when he left Hearts two years ago.
Under Article 17 of Fifa's regulations for the status and transfer of players, a player who signed a contract before the age of 28 is entitled to buy himself out of the contract three years after the deal was signed. Lampard is currently in that "unprotected" period though, technically, he should have served notice of any desire to leave Chelsea within 15 days of the final league game of last season. That would leave him open to "disciplinary measures" from Fifa, though he might consider that a risk worth taking. Webster was guilty of a similar breach, though it only cost him a ban for the first two weeks of the 2007-08 season, with the final compensation figure granted to Hearts on appeal at CAS for a player who earned around £250,000 a year only totalling some £150,000.
Lampard and his adviser have only looked into the possibility of pursuing that course of action and continue to consider their options, though Chelsea's reluctance to sanction the player's sale has left him in limbo. "The situation is ongoing," said Kenyon. "We have always maintained that we want Frank to stay and an offer was made to that effect. That offer is still on the table. Frank is under contract and he still has one year to run on that. We'd like to hope we can reach an agreement but, if we can't, we have always worked on the basis that Frank sees out the terms of his contract. Chelsea has made its position very clear to Internazionale and they have come back now with a financial offer. That will be rejected."
While Chelsea's offer of a four-year deal for a player who has already turned 30 appear generous, Lampard has been seeking a five-year contract since negotiations first began two seasons ago. While he has no complaints with the new manager at Stamford Bridge, Luiz Felipe Scolari, relations with Kenyon appear to have broken down, leaving the midfielder with three options: sign a pre-contract agreement with Inter to join under the Bosman ruling next summer, or relax his stance and sign the four-year deal on offer at Stamford Bridge. The third path - to leave under the Webster ruling - would be the most complicated, and most inflammatory in terms of his relationship with the club's supporters.
Chelsea will feel they retain a position of strength given that they possess the player's registration. Furthermore, while Hearts were ultimately deeply frustrated by the relatively small figure they received for a player they had valued at £4m, the fact that Webster's case dragged out for some 17 months before CAS reached their conclusion in January would be unsettling for the player and the buying club.
Fifa had originally decreed that Webster should pay a sum of £625,000 representing the player's wages over the final 12 months of his Hearts contract, his earning potential and legal costs. The world football governing body were highly critical of CAS's ruling - Sepp Blatter claimed it would have "far reaching and damaging effects on the game as a whole" - and, with that in mind, could potentially order Lampard to pay considerably more than the fee currently proposed by Inter to conclude the transfer in a more conventional way.
Any Fifa ruling could, of course, be reduced by CAS again, yet Lampard, and effectively Inter, would risk the possibility that the final amount needed to secure the transfer could prove exorbitant.
Inter remain confident that, despite the Londoners' knockback, they can still prise Lampard to Italy. "Jose Mourinho is still confident of securing his signing," said the Inter assistant coach, Beppe Baresi. The Italian club will return with an improved offer for the midfielder in the days to come, though they are likely to get the same response.
The Webster ruling
Andy Webster was the first player to test Article 17 of Fifa's transfer regulations, whereby players who sign contracts when aged under 28 are able to break them after three years. Hearts wanted £4m for the centre-half when he moved to Wigan in 2006. Webster's advisers believed they owed Hearts one year's wages, around £250,000, the value of the last year of his four-year contract. Fifa decreed in May 2007 that Hearts were due £625,000 and banned Webster for the start of the 2007-08 season as he had served notice of his departure outside the 15-day window at the end of a league season. Hearts and Webster appealed and, in January, the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced the compensation payable by Webster to £150,000.
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