Alrubie filed a multi-million-pound claim over fees relating to Zouma's transfer
The agent was instructed to pursue his claim via Football Association arbitration
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By TUM BALOGUN
Published: 12:46 EDT, 14 March 2025 | Updated: 12:46 EDT, 14 March 2025
Former Chelsea CEO Marina Granovskaia has welcomed the High Court's decision to rule in her favour in a legal battle with football agent Saif Alrubie.
Alrubie filed a multi-million-pound claim with the London Circuit Commercial Court over fees he alleged were still owed to him as part of Kurt Zouma's £30million transfer from the Blues to West Ham in August 2021.
However, judge David Quest KC agreed to Granovskaia's request to stay proceedings and ruled that Alrubie should pursue his claim via Football Association arbitration instead.
The agent was also ordered to pay £150,000 plus VAT in costs on an interim basis.
A spokesperson for Granovskaia said: 'We welcome today's High Court ruling in Ms Granovskaia's favour.
'Our position has always been that Mr Rubie's claim is baseless, but that if he wanted to pursue his unmeritorious claim, he should have done so in the proper forum, which the Court has confirmed is Rule K arbitration.'
Former Chelsea CEO Marina Granovskaia has welcomed the High Court's decision to rule in her favour in a legal battle with football agent Saif Alrubie
Alrubie was instructed to pursue his claim via Football Association arbitration instead
Alrubie believes he is still owed a significant amount after Kurt Zouma's transfer to West Ham
A spokesman for Alrubie said: 'Whilst we would have preferred our claim to be heard in open court, we're satisfied that the High Court judge confirmed that Marina Granovskaia is answerable in these proceedings in her own right.
'We look forward to pursuing our action for justice via the Rule K arbitration process.'
Alrubie dropped a previous High Court claim against Chelsea for £2,900,637 in October, instead pursuing Granovskaia personally for what he says is unpaid commission on the Zouma transfer.
That came six months after he was cleared of sending a threatening email to former Chelsea director.
The intermediary was charged with a single count of sending an electronic communication with an intent to cause distress after emailing Granovskaia on May 22, 2022, over a payment of £300,000 he believes he was owed from Zouma's move.
He denied he had threatened to cause distress and broke down in tears after the verdict, admitting that his life had 'been hell' during the case.
Alrubie said after his acquittal that he was owed '10 times' the £300k commission he had demanded from Granovskaia over Zouma's transfer to West Ham three years ago.
Indeed, the jury during the trial heard that he had worked on the understanding that, as an intermediary, he would receive a commission on any fee worth more than €30m (£25.3m).
'The £300,000 was actually an amount that I was willing to accept when I didn't know all of the facts and the truth of the transfer fee was hidden away from me,' Rubie told talkSPORT during an interview live on the radio.
'The judge in the trial established all of the facts, thank God. The law of the land is above any law and I'm just glad that that has vindicated everything that I've had to go through and the facts were black and white.'