The Italian club Genoa are facing potential Fifa sanction, which could extend from a fine to a points deduction or even relegation from Serie A, relating to their reluctance to fulfil a payment due to the Trinidadian side W Connection for Zaine Pierre’s transfer over three years ago.
Pierre, a St Lucia midfielder who had trials with Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Manchester City as a teenager, left Trinidad and Tobago for Genoa in November 2011 after two years spent primarily in the youth team at W Connection. The Italian club paid an initial €200,000 [£146,000] for the player, but agreed to meet a further fee of €150,000 when Pierre, who came highly rated, turned professional.
That amount, which was subsequently readjusted to €125,000 plus interest and costs, has been due since August 2012 with Fifa’s players status committee – for whom the former chairman of the FA and vice-president of Uefa and Fifa, Geoff Thompson, acted as a single judge – having ruled a year ago that Genoa should make the payment within 30 days. That deadline passed, with Fifa subsequently writing to the Italian football federation’s general secretary, Michele Uva, in September 2014 urging them to encourage Genoa to pay the money that was due and resolve the matter.
Genoa’s subsequent attempt at a compromise, involving a revised payment of €62,500, was rejected by W Connection with Fifa duly advising the Italian federation that disciplinary proceedings had been opened against the Serie A club over “a violation of article 64 of the Fifa disciplinary code”. The governing body has granted Genoa a final deadline of 2 April to make the final payments and if they are not forthcoming, the disciplinary committee will meet on 16 April to determine the level of sanction to be imposed.
Genoa are currently ninth in Serie A, sandwiched between Milan and Internazionale, and 16 points clear of Cagliari and Cesena in the relegation zone. Yet Fifa’s correspondence with Uva confirms that its disciplinary committee’s sanctions range from “a fine, deduction of points or relegation” over a player who has never represented the first-team and is currently on loan at the Serie C club, SF Aversa Normanna. Now 21, Pierre has suffered injury problems since his move to Italy but has now been capped four times by St Lucia.
