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| Controversial ... Alejandro Faurlin |
Queens Park Rangers Football Club celebrated promotion to the top flight of English football this week following an unprecedented turnaround in their fortunes over the last 13 months, but their eagerly-awaited Premier League return could be foiled by an FA enquiry. Two words, QPR fans: Alejandro Faurlin.
The London club could be charged for fielding an ineligible player if the FA find that the circumstances surrounding Faurlin’s transfer from Argentine club Cordoba are not within the rules. Speculation is mounting that QPR could suffer a points deduction, possibly as many as 15 points, which would see them lose their status as champions and leave them needing to go through the play-offs in order to play Premiership football next season.
The mire of innuendo and conjecture is easy to get lost in, but the fact seems to be that Faurlin’s contract was owned by a third party rather than a club. He was on loan at Cordoba, but the third party retained the rights to him as a player. A similar situation arose in 2003 when Carlos Tevez moved to West Ham from a third-party ownership. In fact it isn’t uncommon in South America for clubs to employ players in this way without actually ‘owning’ them as is convention in Europe. The players are essentially ‘loaned’ to the club as an English club might loan a young player to a team in the division below.
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| Tevez arrives in England |
In the case of Tevez, he single-handedly rescued West Ham from relegation at the business end of that season, meaning that Sheffield United went down instead. Blades manager Neil Warnock is now, ironically, the head coach of QPR and is on the other end of a similar situation. The outcome of that farce was that West Ham were ordered to pay compensation to the Premier League and to West Ham. They weren’t docked points because they hadn’t broken any rules; the situation was unprecedented. West Ham also made compensatory payments to Sheffield United.
Since then, the FA has imposed new rules governing the payment by clubs to third parties. Third-party ownership of players has been unequivocally banned. The problem is not so much with transferring players from third-parties; the FA are more concerned that a third-party still owned Faurlin’s playing rights after the move.
Faurlin’s transfer to QPR in July 2009 is rumoured to be worth around £3.5 million including clauses. Inter Milan reportedly had a first-option clause for his services, but Faurlin didn’t want to join Inter because he couldn’t be sure of first-team action. The FA hearing is set to determine whether that transfer fee was paid to a third party, or if a third party had legal ownership over the player while he played in England.
The situation is more serious than the Tevez affair, as the FA took no part in that. The Premier League itself conducted the investigation on that occasion. For the FA to step in, they must be convinced that something sinister is amiss. The details are still pretty sketchy at this point, with the FA hearing set to be conducted behind closed doors. If the case isn’t closed before the play-offs, though, they could be put on hold. Football fans will dread to think what the repercussions could be if the case continues all summer, without uncertainty looming over which league the top 8 Championship clubs will be playing in. It could be a logistical nightmare to say the least.
Following the QPR controversies, NAMEOFWEBSITE have compiled a profile on 26-year-old Alejandro Faurlin, the player at the heart of the affair, who will be little-known to a lot of readers.
Full name | Alejandro Damián Faurlín |
Nationality | Argentine |
Place of Birth | Rosario Argentina |
Date of Birth | 9 August 1986 |
Career to date (clubs) | Rosario Central, Atlético de Rafaela, Instituto de Cordoba |
Position | Midfield |
Shirt number | 11 |
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