Mutu forced to pay Blues £13.7m for drugs shame
Former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu faces financial ruin this morning after being ordered to pay the club a world record £13.68m in damages for his drugs shame.
The Romanian striker had his contract terminated by the Blues in October 2004 after testing positive for cocaine. But now the Fiorentina frontman will have to pay Chelsea a total of €17,173,990 following a hearing of FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) yesterday.
Mutu, 29, signed for the Blues from Parma in a £15.5m move in August 2003 but played just 38 times for the club before testing positive for cocaine in September 2004. He then received a seven-month ban and a £20,000 fine from the Football Association before being sacked by Chelsea a month later.
Mutu rebuilt his career in Italy, first at Juventus and then at Fiorentina, who paid €20m for him in July 2006. But his past came back to haunt him last year when the Court of Arbitration for Sport backed Chelsea’s claim for compensation and ordered him to pay £9.6m in June.
Mutu, through his lawyer Cristian Sarbu, vowed to contest the amount in the civil court and the matter went to the DRC panel. The £13.68m was worked out on the value left on the remaining period of his Chelsea contract and is an all-time record figure for any such compensation claim.
A club statement released yesterday read: “Chelsea is delighted with the DRC’s decision. This is an important decision for football. Not only did the DRC make us a very significant monetary award, the decision also recognised the damaging effect incidents involving drugs has on football and the responsibilities we all have in this area.
“Chelsea will now be following the process laid out in the DRC’s decision to claim the money from Mutu.” Mutu is expected to appeal.