Spygate could open out further problems for Saints with news that German club FCNurnberg are aggrieved that the club's failure to win promotion to the Premier League meant that a clause was not triggered in the transfer deal that took Caspar Jander to St Mary's.
sportwitness.co.uk are reporting that Bundesliga 2 side FC Nurnberg are continuing to explore their options regarding the clause in the deal that bought Caspar Jander to Saints last August had a clause inserted that meant that should Southampton be promoted to the Premier League, then they would be entitled to a further payment of £1 million.
They say:
At the time Nürnberg sporting director Joti Chatzialexiou subsequently stated that the German side would “examine legal options.”
He was asked about this again on Friday by German media outlet BILD and his answer was.
“We are continuing to have our potential claims thoroughly reviewed by our lawyers, since the statute of limitations has not yet expired, we are under no immediate time pressure.”
Nürnberg are said to be waiting to explore options once the transfer window has closed, seemingly because they do not want to scupper a potential move from St Mary's which would trigger other options regarding sell on clauses, so they clearly need the money.
Bild go on to suggest that one potential solution for Southampton would be to sell Jander in this window which would effectively close the case on the transfer deal between the two clubs from a legal perspective, they say that VfB Stuttgart and RB Leipzig are two clubs who are interested in taking Jander back to Germany.
The German media outlet also go on to clarify that so far not a single legal action has been filed against Saints regarding Spygate, including any by Southampton players who might feel aggrieved at the fact that they lost out on bonus's they might have received had been promoted.
It should also be noted that Caspar Jander himself is not involved in Nurnberg's claim, nor is there any inference that he was a player who Bild claim was aggrieved.
My view is that this might point out that perhaps Nurnberg know they are on stony ground with a potential legal challenge and for that matter any Saints players at the club last season.
Any contracts would have merely stated about bonus's paid out on promotion, NOT about events or incidents that stopped them.
Sadly football is heading down a rabbit hole these days and if Nurnberg or any club or player for instance start issuing writs for incidents such as Spygate, where will it end, a goalkeeper being sued for a rash challenge that conceded a penalty that knocked a club out of the play offs ? a referee being sued for awarding or failing to award that penalty ?
Sporting contests are open to many things happening that can change the overall outcome, once Pandoras Box is opened on this sort of thing, it will be the end of sport.
All Photos Via Reuters
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