Phil Hay has been speaking on the latest edition of The Athletic’s The Phil Hay Show about all things relating to Leeds United.
One of the topics that he spent a little bit of time on was the legal battle over Jean-Kevin Augustin, with the Whites refusing to pay the money that RB Leipzig feel they are owed for the striker after Leeds won promotion.
Leeds signed Augustin on loan with an obligation to buy if promoted in January this year. However, with the season suspended, Leeds chose not to extend Augustin’s loan beyond June 30th and he returned to Germany.
The Whites then won promotion, and the Bundesliga side want the money from Leeds that was agreed in the initial loan deal.
Leipzig have taken their case to FIFA, but it seems as if, according to Hay, Leeds feel they are in a strong position.
He said: [FIFA] cannot legally say to somebody that ‘your contract ends on June the 30th, but you have to play until the end of July.’
“There are literally no grounds on which to defend that. So, I think Leeds’ case will be very, very strong.
“The one thing I would say is that in the case of ‘Spygate’, for example, there was no rule at all preventing Bielsa [from] doing what he did, and the EFL managed to nail him and Leeds down on the basis of a good faith clause.
“So whether or not that can be applied by FIFA, I am not sure, but certainly, Leeds are pretty confident that they will be able to get out of this one.”
Do you think Leeds will win?
Yes, we have a strong case
No, we will lose
TIF Thoughts on the Jean-Kevin Augustin case…
The Frenchman’s signing was a disaster for the Whites as he made just three first-team appearances, totalling just 48 minutes on the pitch.
If FIFA forces Leeds to pay Leipzig over this, then they will have to pay around £18m for 48 minutes of game time, so you can see why they don’t want to do that.
We think it is good that Leeds feel confident, but Leipzig must also feel confident to take it to FIFA.
So, we will be watching on with keen interest to see which club FIFA sides with on this one.