Gabriel transfer to City still in danger over third party ownership wrangle

TRANSFER TALK

There is the news from the Telegraph of Sam Allardyce abusing his position as national manager taking payments to instruct businessmen how to circumvent his employers rules on third party ownership, that I reported earlier.

There is the Marcos Rojo stories of his third party owners dictating where he was transferred to when he joined Manchester United as reported by the Times, West Ham abusing the system with Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. We tried to buy Villarreal centre-back Mateo Musacchio but third party ownership got in the way, as it did when we tried to buy João Moutinho.

Now the transfer of Gabriel Jesus to Manchester City agreed for January is in serious doubt. The player himself has apparently told close friends he has given up on the deal. There is a dispute over who owns his economic rights.

Palmeiras contract negotiations in 2014 ended with his economic rights in the hands of three parties, the club 30%, his agent Cristiano Simões (47.5%) and former agent Fabio Caran (22.5%).

Fabio Caran registered his ownership in the name of his wife's company, Naima Ferreira Ltda, no doubt for tax avoidance. She has subsequently sold the company and only holds a 1% interest, however the players economic rights can not be transferred, that was agreed when signing his contract.

Palmeiras are involved in a legal case as they say this has violated the contract and thus they refuse to pay Caran any share of any transfer fee, keeping it for themselves.

His case is an example of just how difficult it can be to sign South American players and why the ban on third party ownership needs to be tightened even further. agents for instance should not be allowed any economic interest in a player as that encourages them to transfer the player again to line their own pocket. It is not uncommon for a player to be told where he is playing and basically have no say in the matter, that can not be right.

We play Manchester City at the weekend, the only two unbeaten clubs in the Premier League going head-to-head at White Hart Lane. Man of the moment for City, Kevin De Bruyne, misses the game with a hamstring injury and given his form that is a blessing. Plenty of quality players to take his place though but let's get tonight's game out of the way first.

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