Trabelsi announces lawsuit against Ajax
21 April: Hatem Trabelsi and his attorney will
institute legal proceedings against Ajax. At stake is a free
transfer for the Tunisian right fullback at season's end. His
Ajax contract would have expired this summer, if it wasn't
for a one-sided option for Ajax to extend by two seasons that
was included in the deal. Trabelsi claims that such one-sided
options are not legally valid. Ajax and the player will see
each other in court on Tuesday 04 May.
The crisis between Ajax and Trabelsi has been in the air
since
February of this year, when Ajax announced that the club
was going to claim its one-sided option to extend
Trabelsi's two year Ajax deal by another couple of seasons. In
the last months of 2003 the player repeatedly told press
agencies and news networks from all over the world that he was
ready to move on. The one-sided extension of his contract until
the summer of 2006 came as an unpleasant surprise to Trabelsi,
as interested clubs would now have to pay a considerable
transfer fee to Ajax.
Trabelsi and his lawyers threatened with a lawsuit, but Ajax
only underscored its confidence in the legal validity of
Trabelsi's contract and the extension of the deal. According to
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf Trabelsi's decision
to actually 'throw the book at Ajax' has everything to do with
the fact that the clubs interested in his services (including
English giants Manchester United and Liverpool FC) do not want
to pay a high transfer fee for him. Interest in landing the
Tunisian is high; interest in buying him much less
so.
The lawsuit, due in Amsterdam on 04 May, could be a crucial
test case. One-sided extension options included in player
contracts are not unusual in the world of football and used by
many other clubs than Ajax. If Trabelsi wins the case all of
these contract extensions could suddenly become legally
invalid, allowing numerous players (including Ajax's Maxwell)
in Europe to leave their current clubs on a free transfer.
His decision to go to court shines a new light on Trabelsi's
slightly mysterious 'injury' that has kept him sidelined most
of the time since he returned as
champion of Africa on 14 February.
Hatem Trabelsi (born 25 January 1977 in Ariana,
Tunisia) was purchased by Ajax head-coach Co
Adriaanse in the summer of 2001, coming from Club Sportif
Sfaxien in his native country. His powerful rushes along the
right flank made him one of the revelations of the season,
which brought Ajax the Dutch championship and the Amstel Cup.
His fine Champions League performances in the 2003-2004 season
made Trabelsi one of the most wanted players of the
succesful Ajax crop. In total he had 56 Eredivisie, 23
European and 4 domestic cup appearances for Ajax. He
scored two goals in total in the Dutch Eredivisie.
It is generally expected that the painful knock-out at SC
Heerenveen on 25 February 2004 (4-1) was his last official
appearance for Ajax. Ronald Koeman repeatedly stated that
Trabelsi has not been his 'normal self' ever since the African
Nations Cup tournament in February and almost always chose for
either Zdenek Grygera or Nigel de Jong as Ajax's right
fullbacks. Trabelsi's departure at season's end seems
inevitable. The only things at stake seem to be a transfer
fee (for Ajax) and a free transfer (for
Trabelsi). (MP)
Sources: NOS Teletekst, De Telegraaf
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