It seems that the assumption that Rafael Leao’s renewal would bring an end to the saga involving the fine owed to Sporting CP was the wrong one to make.
Leao renewed his Milan contract last May until 2028 and Record in Portugal made the claim at the time that Lille would pay the fine owed to Sporting CP after the unilateral termination of his deal back in 2018.
They stated that the Ligue 1 club would hand over €20.3m (€16.5m in compensation plus €3.8m in interest) following an appeal before the Swiss Federal Court which they lost.
Then, it emerged that Milan actually paid that sum to Lille to then send on to Sporting CP, in exchange for removing the sell-on clause as part of the renewal.
Today’s edition of Record (via PianetaMilan) are reporting that the Portuguese club are standing firm in their view that the €20.3m they received was not and is not enough.
They have always demanded €45m and now Sporting CP have appealed to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) in Lausanne (Switzerland) to try get the full amount they believe they deserve.
The first hearing is scheduled for March 26, so the Leao fine saga shows no signs of ending any time soon.
At this point someone should go ahead and fine sporting.. sobs going after just one guy while several players left at the time
I’m glad management was intelligent enough to remove the resale clause from Leao’s contract by paying the 20mil. I guess everyone realized the high figure sale potential.