The player and his representatives, pointing out that the request was pending, that the administrative deadlines are independent of their will and that the title was ultimately awarded to him, believed that the club should honor the contract. They therefore appealed to FIFA. The dispute chamber of the international body ruled in their favor on 8 December, ordering Pau FC to pay around 150,000 euros in outstanding salary arrears and damages. The leaders of Béarn, who had 10 days to appeal and an additional 45 days to pay from the notification, did not respond. The dispute chamber of the international body therefore sanctioned them.
Administrative Tangle
Since then, the Béarn club had not expressed itself on the matter. This Thursday, president Bernard Laporte-Fray revealed to Sud Ouest the details of this case and the Pau version. “Initially, it was a player we were interested in, we had a deadline. It was absolutely necessary for him to arrive before the end of January 2025. However, he could not obtain the necessary documents to leave the country. We waited a long time, and with Luis (De Sousa, the sports director), we thought we would recover him in June for the coming year. However, we received a document from the LFP stating that it was taking too long, and that in the absence of certain necessary pieces for approval, the contract had become void. The Senegalese Football Federation then sided with the League. We were faced with a fait accompli.”
The Wrong Address
“From there, no sound, no image,” continued the Pau president. It was only through the press that the Béarn governance learned the nature of their sanction. “We were not notified,” explained “BLF”. And for good reason, the rest of this tangle becomes a little more technical. “Each club is linked to an email address,” said sports director Luis de Sousa. The address that FIFA had was the one with our affiliation number followed by the at sign and the prefix “lna” (National League of Aquitaine). With the change in regional names, the suffix of the address became “lfna”. We received nothing from all the notifications and emails sent to us asking for justification. How can we assert our right to defense in such circumstances?”
