Norwegian court rules against Obi Mikel / ****tu

LostinBlanch

This just in apparently a norwegian court has ruled against Obi Mikel and his agent ****tu in the supposed "forged" contract case, and they've been ordered to pay costs!

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/sports/article1193773.ece

Court throws out Mikel's claim
An Oslo city court has tossed out a complaint filed by young Nigerian soccer player John Obi Mikel, in which Mikel claimed he has no obligation to play for Oslo club Lyn.The court ruled Monday that Mikel's case doesn't belong in court, and should instead be handled by the Norwegian soccer association.

The Oslo city court referred to soccer association regulations that call for all conflicts to be handled by the association's own arbitration body.

Morgan Andersen, director of soccer club Lyn, said he was pleased by the court's decision, adding that he'd leave any further comment to Lyn's lawyers.

Andersen has been caught up in a lengthy ongoing conflict with Mikel, which has to do with who has claims on his playing talent. Mikel was playing for Lyn, which later arranged for him to transfer to Manchester United, only to see the transfer disintegrate into an acrimonious power struggle involving Mikel's Nigerian agent, who wants him to play for Chelsea.

Mikel, who initially seemed pleased by the deal to play for Manchester United, has often seemed caught in the middle between higher powers making claims on him. For the past several months, however, Mikel has fought against Lyn and filed suit in November over the validity of several contracts.

The city court, after throwing out the claim, also ordered Mikel to pay NOK 150,000 in court costs for Lyn (about USD 22,000).

BKtje

good stuff.
22k is nasty but i guess he'll earn enough (or has?) to easily afford it.

s8n

so where does this leave Utd ??

Sandals

s8n wrote:

so where does this leave Utd ??

in a marginaly better, yet still vague position.

PHB

Marginally better, but still rock solid.
Mikel has literally no legs to stand on, with more and more stories coming out. It'll go to the sports arbitration and United will win it, whether or not he plays for United is another question, but I'm confident he will.
Annoying this is he isn't going to have joined by January I think, I'm hoping the window will force him to come out and just join united.

Guy:Incognito

PHB wrote:

Mikel has literally no legs to stand on,

Not great for a footballers career that.:D

The Muppet

s8n wrote:

so where does this leave Utd ??

It leaves OBI contracted to play for United.

SCULLY

Can't see him being very popular at Old Trafford seeing has he has spent the last few months trying to invalidate any agreement between them. That said, I don't know if I would like any player signing for Chelsea who has such a problem making history.

leeroybrown

I think what it comes down to ultimately is having the contract proven to be solid. The last thing needed is another weakening of contracts between clubs and players.

The Muppet

SCULLY wrote:

Can't see him being very popular at Old Trafford seeing has he has spent the last few months trying to invalidate any agreement between them. That said, I don't know if I would like any player signing for Chelsea who has such a problem making history.

I can't see his agent being very popular at United but the lad is only a kid caught up in a nasty situation and I believe most united fans will see that and welcome him if he does end up a united player. A few good displys would see the rest on board , look at the Alan Smith scenario.

PHB

This is too good to let go to Chelsea.
I want him at United even if he is unhappy there.
Ultimately we can sell him on, but not to Chelsea, to Milan or Barca or someone, can't strengthen them even more.

gracehopper

PHB wrote:

This is too good to let go to Chelsea.
I want him at United even if he is unhappy there.
Ultimately we can sell him on, but not to Chelsea, to Milan or Barca or someone, can't strengthen them even more.

i havent seen anything of this player and have heard nothing from a footballing point of view, should United get him will he get into the team straight away? should United sell him on is he good enough to go to Barca or Milan? Cos if he is good enough, then i suppose he is worth the fight but if he's crap then good luck to him and chelsea, he defo wont get in the chelsea team for a few years yet anyway

evilhomer

Still a player who has no desire to play for you, why would you want them? I couldn't see this happening in any other business i.e if an employee showed he had no desire to work for a company would you want him?

The fact that a person wants to go somewhere else should be an indicator that they will not give 100% for the team.

LostinBlanch

Well it's probably a mixture of reasons.

1. Principle: He's contracted to play for us and we're not going to have Chelsea steal him away. Just because Abramovich has shedloads of dodgy money and even dodgier friends (allegedly) doesn't mean that he should be allowed to invalidate a legal contract between a club and player. If he does then it'll be a very very bad day for football. I'm with Leeroybrown on this one. Even if he weren't signed for us I would want him and other players to honour contracts that they signed.
2. We're United, we won't roll over like Spurs did last year with Arnesen.
3. His agent, it's people like these that make you want to shoot all agents, kidnapping players from their club and touting them off to Chelsea. Allegedly having Mafia types threaten Obi's family in Nigeria etc. This is deserving of criminal investigation rather than just being ignored IMO. And I would say this whatever club were involved. This is not what I, as a United fan, would accept my club condoning.
4. He's a bloody good player: Anyone who has seen him have said that he is a brilliant prospect (2nd only to Messi as the player of the tournament at the under 20 World Cup). Mourinho has drooled over him describing him as "gold". He's a natural midfielder, something we badly need. How many midfielders do Chelsea need?
5. Do you just want to let one club buy up the majority of available players (of sufficient standard) in order to stop them playing for other clubs? Even the most rabid ABU couldn't accuse United of doing this.
6. Like PHB said if he didn't work out we could sell him on to a club of our choice and not Chelsea.

As to the question of where this leaves both club and player, still heading to court probably. The last thing Abramaovich wants is a player of his quality playing for us, he will do anything in his power to stop this happening even if this means funding more court cases trying to keep Obi out of our first team.

shabbyroad

evilhomer wrote:

Still a player who has no desire to play for you, why would you want them? I couldn't see this happening in any other business i.e if an employee showed he had no desire to work for a company would you want him?

Yes if I had invested a lot of money in him. I'd be looking for my return. At the sort of wages he'd be on... I'd feckin give him desire....

"pictures ? I'LL GIVE YE PICTURES !!!!!!!!!"

The Muppet

evilhomer wrote:

Still a player who has no desire to play for you, why would you want them?

Who said he had no desire to play for us? He signed a contract to play for United and was very happy to do so until outside influences and threats got to him .

therecklessone

LostinBlanch wrote:

[*] We're United, we won't roll over like Spurs did last year with Arnesen.

Eh? We allegedly got £8 million for a well-paid DOF who didn't want to be at the club any more, thats rolling over?

Behave yourself.

cournioni

Bah, who cares about this twat any more? He's obviously a greedy little mercenary. He doesn't deserve to play for a club like United.

therecklessone

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Bah, who cares about this twat any more? He's obviously a greedy little mercenary. He doesn't deserve to play for a club like United.

If I were ManYoo I'd be 100% in agreement. He ain't gonna be a happy bunny, sounds like he'll be more trouble than he's worth.

Triton

therecklessone wrote:

Eh? We allegedly got £8 million for a well-paid DOF who didn't want to be at the club any more, thats rolling over?

Behave yourself.

And what's 8 million to Roman? About 0.001 of his wealth I'd say, a drop in the ocean to him.

therecklessone

Triton wrote:

And what's 8 million to Roman? About 0.001 of his wealth I'd say, a drop in the ocean to him.

Your point being?

Guy:Incognito

Anelka 2 anyone?

dcarroll

Stekelly wrote:

Anelka 2 anyone?

What, you mean a player who will win you the double then be sold on for £23,000,000?

PHB

Eh, Spurs didn't roll over, they got a shtiload of money out of it and it was good business.

United don't want the money though, they want the player, and we need this player, h e is going to be amazing, and I don't care if we have to keep him at United for a full year while he is unhappy, cause ultimately he will come around.

Hobart

PHB wrote:

Eh, Spurs didn't roll over, they got a shtiload of money out of it and it was good business.

Not roll over as such, but their hand was forced by Chelsea.Arnesen wanted to leave, there was sfa spurs could have done longterm about that. Spurs took the cleaver approach and got as much put of the deal as they could. But their hand was forced.

United don't want the money though, they want the player, and we need this player, h e is going to be amazing, and I don't care if we have to keep him at United for a full year while he is unhappy, cause ultimately he will come around.

I would want him to play for my team. He is a very exicting prospect and defineately a star for the future at senior level. I don't know about having a player at the club who does not was to be there though. Could he become a disruptive influence? Anyhow I think this story has a long way to go before he gets his name on a premiership jersey in any dressing room.

PHB

Could he become a disruptive influence?

Maybe, but he is 19 years old.
Fergie is a specialist dealing with troublesome kids
I think after a couple of weeks at Carrington, he will come around, and probably become a fan favorite because of his style of play and ability.
If not, we can sell him to Serie A.
Very few people join Serie A and come back to play in a different league. It catches em for good.

BillyBoy

LostinBlanch wrote:

How many midfielders do Chelsea need?

I'm suprised Spurs haven't come in for him!

masterK

I think it has now come down to matter of principal for United, they know they are in the right and cannot be seen to back down on this matter as it would set an alarming precedent.

If he ever does come I could see Ferguson sending him striaght out on loan to some lowly division 2 club to teach him a lesson or two.

LostinBlanch

PHB wrote:

Fergie is a specialist dealing with troublesome kids

I agree but I think somone needs to "deal with" his troublesome agent. :rolleyes:

yop

Agree, he is a fantatic prospect and I believe a lot of this has come from his agent, probably getting a back hand from Chelsea!

Time will tell, if he gets on at United, fair enough, if he does not then sell him

Dempsey

This incident is his agents fault, i think in light of Mike Newell's claims, the agents should be strictly limited in what they can do