Daily Mail: Newcastle to sue FA for £20m

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Newcastle threaten to sue over striker's World Cup injury
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=405520&in_page_id=1779

Newcastle United are threatening to sue the Football Association for £20 million over Michael Owen's injury at the World Cup.

Newcastle are seeking the damages as compensation for the loss of Owen, who is likely to miss most — if not all — of the current season after rupturing a knee ligament during England's 2-2 draw with Sweden in Germany during the summer.

Although Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd refused to comment, The Mail on Sunday understands the club's lawyers are close to finalising writs.

Sources claim the matter came to a head at a meeting of the FA board last Wednesday when the Newcastle chief's attempt to secure a one-off compensation payment to cover Owen's absence was rejected out of hand.

Now Newcastle are prepared to take their case to the high court. If successful, the action could have huge repercussions for the cash-strapped FA and for world football.

The legal action, which is thought to be supported by the powerful G14 group of clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, could pitch Newcastle against FIFA — football's world governing body — by challenging the right of any country to select a player for international duty against the wishes of his club.

If the courts agree, the Owen case could wreck the established system which gives international bodies authority to select any available player, unless he is deemed medically unfit or has opted for international retirement.

Newcastle received nothing from FIFA's fund set up to compensate clubs whose players were injured during the World Cup. That fund, which amounted to £6m, was designed to help poorer nations whose football authorities could not afford the sort of insurance cover taken out by England.

Under that cover, the FA's insurers would be expected to pay half of Owen's £103,000-a-week wages for a year.

Newcastle arrived at their £20m assessment of losses by taking into consideration possible long-term damage to Owen, the potential loss of league points and progress in cup competitions because of his absence, the depreciation of Owen's four-year contract and the cost of buying a replacement such as the £10m the club have paid for Obafemi Martins.

Newcastle are far from a lone voice in the growing disquiet among top clubs that the current compensation arrangements are paltry when compared to the club's potential losses if star players are injured while on international duty.

While FIFA president Sepp Blatter has insisted that individual clubs are not allowed to take action against their national associations, the world governing body are themselves being sued by Belgian club Charleroi over an injury suffered on international duty by Morocco's Abdelmajid Oulmers.

The Owen case will add fuel to that club-versus-country row.

As well as Owen, who is recuperating from surgery performed in America last week, Newcastle have twice been denied the services of promising young defender Steven Taylor because of injuries while he was with the England Under-21 squad.

West Ham have been hit by the loss for at least five months of striker Dean Ashton — injured while preparing for England's friendly against Greece last month which was Steve McClaren's first game in charge.
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I hope there's some truth in this, i'm sick of our players getting injured while playing crappy internationals.

we deserve a good £10m aswell.

stupid england team

That's fucking ridiculous. We should be sueing the French FA for £12million then, because that's what we had agreed to sell him for.

Newcastle arrived at their £20m assessment of losses by taking into consideration possible long-term damage to Owen, the potential loss of league points and progress in cup competitions because of his absence, the depreciation of Owen's four-year contract and the cost of buying a replacement such as the £10m the club have paid for Obafemi Martins.

Only Fat Freddy Shepherd could have come up with this.

If they bought a replacement in Martins then they shouldn't drop points or fail to progress in cup competitions. They can't have it both ways. What they're asking is for the FA to effectively buy them a new player, even though Owen will likely be back in a year, and pay them money just in case they fail despite the new player. It's basically saying to the FA 'we're crap, pay us money'. Just like the Blacks in the US and their affirmative action.

By this reckoning, Liverpool should sue the French FA not for money but for the English Premier League title, on the grounds that without Cisse they have less chance of winning it and apparently that is the fault of the French FA.

Newcastle are run by cretins, and no court in the land should uphold such a ludicrous case.

Even if there is some element of truth about this, this will certinly open up the floodgates to numerous of clubs...

It will cause a mess and I am sure FIFA will not allow such compensations package's for injured star's....

Michael Owen's surgeon Dr Richard Steadman has told the Newcastle striker: "Whatever makes you retire from football, it won't be your knee." (The Times)

No, it'll be the fact that your hamstrings are constantly going, you've lost a yard of pace and your all-round game hasn't developed enough to make up for it, or the fact that you'll switch teams for a sniff of glory.

As for the compensation - I'd dismiss it as headline-grabbing, but the FA appear to have opened up the possibility with the debate about additional insurance for Rooney pre-World Cup.

This just confirms that Sheppherd truly is a complete and utter wanker