Premier League officials warn Chelsea over signing Brazilian player Ramires
Chelsea has been linked for a move to sign Brazilian midfielder Ramires, which is currently in the region of 20 million pounds. Premier officials have been monitoring the English Champion’s activities, and have warned that notorious agent Kia Joorabchian holds a 50% stake in the player.
No player can be signed who is owned by a third party, according to the Premier League rules, and the board of directors managing the league alerted the club to get the matters sorted out before the transfer is made.
Joorabchian allegedly paid Benfica £5m back in April for half the share of Ramires. It is a custom in Brazil that many of the upcoming talents rights are sold off in percentage to third parties, in order to raise cash, and Ramires is one of them. The player’s other agent Pini Zahavi reportedly owns further 30% rights of the player, and all of these percentages need to be paid off before a player can be signed to the Premier League.
Hence, say if Ramires does sign for a 20 million pound deal, his current club Benfica will only get 4 million of it, as it currently own 20 %. Joorabchian, meanwhile, will double his investment, cashing in 10 million pounds while investing just 5 million for the fifty percent rights of the players. The Premier League player therefore requires Chelsea to pay all the transfer fee directly to the current club of the player, which is Benfica. Benfica however will want the consent of the respected right owners of the players, and pay them once a deal has been struck with the Premier League club.
Ramires started his career for his boyhood club Joinville and slowly made the first team. After impressing with the club, he spent a season long with Brazilian heavy weights Cruzeiro, who later signed the player owing to his impressive performances. Portuguese side Benfica then snapped up the player, and has made 30 appearances for the club, scoring 5 times. The player possesses some exciting titles in the midfield, and was part of Brazil’s Olympics team, who won the bronze medal in 2008.
The Premier League board voiced its opinion regarding the matter, stating that their position regarding the matter was crystal clear; which was that any third party ownership for any player will be rejected by the Premier league. If the transfer however still takes place, it will only be a club to club agreement, and the player will not be allowed to play in the Premier League.
The spokesman for the Premier League added that some countries still allow such agreements to take place, but their position on the front is clear, and any such deal will be disqualified by the board.
Such a rule was brought in the English League back in 2007, involving Argentinean striker Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. West Ham United failed to disclose Joorabchian’s involvement in the rights of the players and West Ham United were thus fined 5.5 million pounds. The hammers also had to pay 20 million pounds in compensation to Sheffield United. Chelsea will not want to follow West Ham United’s footsteps and get the matters right before signing the player. This will be Chelsea’s first signing, should the deal go through and will want to snap up the 23 year old before they fly to Germany for their pre-season campaign, starting from Sunday. It is expected that Chelsea will be without the player since such complication proves to be really time consuming.
Chelsea has already released three of its big players, with the likes of former German captain Michael Ballack, Brazilian Juliano Belletti and England international Joe Cole, failing to get their contracts renewed. Chelsea won their first ever double last season, winning both the FA Cup as well as the Premier League title, and will be hoping to hang on to these trophies in the coming season. Chelsea need new replacements for these players, and will want some high profile signings at the club in order to defend the Premier League and the FA Cup.
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