Pogba, contract termination and salary suspension: here’s what Juve can do

The Frenchman would have admitted to having taken a supplement without having had the opinion of the club which would therefore be extraneous to the matter and therefore an injured party. The collective agreement between Lega Serie A, AIC and FIGC indicates the paths along which the Bianconeri can move

Elisabetta Esposito

– Rome

Juventus knew nothing. And now he has an important weapon to use against Pogba on a contractual level. According to the first reconstructions of yesterday’s hectic day, the Frenchman went to the Juventus managers admitting that he had taken a supplement, recommended by a doctor friend, unrelated to Juventus, and bought in America, where there are different rules related to doping.

juve damaged

The mistake therefore lies entirely with Pogba, who will now be forced to demonstrate the lack of intentionality in taking the testosterone to which he tested positive on 20 August after the match against Udinese, with the hope of seeing the sanction reduced provides a maximum penalty of 4 years of disqualification. The damage for the Juventus club is also evident, but as we said he has a way to get out of it, if only on an economic level considering that Polpo earns 8 million plus 2 million bonuses per season and that he is linked to Juve until 2026.

Suspension

So let’s see what the collective agreement signed by Lega Serie A and Aic, obviously with the FIGC, provides in this sense, in force from 31 January 2023 until 30 June 2024. Article 5 (Payment of Salary) paragraph 5 provides for the suspension of the remuneration, even in the case in which “the footballer has been subject to disciplinary measures prohibiting sporting activity as a result of sanctions relating to sporting offences, bans on betting and doping practices, as well as in cases of unavailability of the Footballer as a result of measures, even temporary, ordered by the Judicial Authority”. A disqualification for doping therefore explicitly falls among the reasons why it is possible to suspend the payment of the salary, “subject to communication starting from the effective date (in the case of the Juventus player, yesterday’s suspension, ed.) and for its entire duration” of the interdiction. To clarify, if Pogba is punished with a two-year ban, Juve will suspend the monthly payments for that period and then resume paying the penalty until the end of the contract.

resolution

However, the club could go further and ask for the contract to be terminated. To the art. 11 (Defaults and penal clauses) paragraph 4, we read that “in the event of disqualification for doping, the reduction in remuneration, as an alternative to the action of terminating the contract, may be equal to the entire remuneration, fixed and variable, due for the period of duration of the disqualification, starting from the precautionary suspension decided by the sports justice bodies”. The collective agreement in fact offers possible scenarios on which to move, but obviously it must be the club that proceeds with its requests if the player is unable to perform.

the last word

Any request for resolution will however be evaluated by the Arbitration Board which will decide whether it is appropriate or not. A decision which in Pogba’s case will also depend on the duration of the possible sanction by the National Anti-Doping Tribunal: if it were 4 years (maximum penalty for this offence), the disqualification would exceed the duration of the current contract that the player has with the Juve (three seasons including the current one) and for the Board it would be almost impossible not to grant the resolution: if instead the disqualification were for example for one year, therefore with a good remainder of the existing contract, the resolution could be denied by limiting itself to the suspension .



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