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Thursday September 10, 2009

Man City deny poaching French teen from Rennes

LONDON: Manchester City insisted on Tuesday they acted within the rules over the signing of teenager Jeremy Helan after FIFA confirmed they are investigating a complaint by French side Rennes.

Rennes made their complaint after City signed the teenager earlier this year but the Manchester club claim there was already a civil court dispute between the 17-year-old defender and Rennes before he moved to Eastlands.

City said in a statement: “Manchester City are aware of the ongoing contractual dispute in the French Labour Courts between Jeremy Helan and Stade Rennais. The dispute between the player and the club pre-dates any interest from Manchester City.

“Manchester City obviously cannot comment on the case until the French judicial process has run its course, however we are comfortable that we have acted within the rules throughout the process and in no way induced any breach of contract by Jeremy Helan.”

FIFA confirmed they are looking into a complaint by Rennes. “We can confirm that there is a case pending with FIFA’s Player Status Department involving Jeremy Helan, Stade Rennais FC and Manchester City,” FIFA said.

The case follows FIFA’s ban of Chelsea signing any new players for the next two transfer windows for inducing another French teenager, Gael Kakuta, to breach his contract with Lens.

And Rennes technical director Pierre Dreossi said they would be pushing for the same action to be taken against Man City as was taken against Chelsea over the Kakuta affair.

“This decision should set a precedent,” said Dreossi. “Manchester City will have to take responsbility. We’re not going to take this lying down because our case is even more solid than Lens.

“City thought that the player was free and never contacted us.” — AFP

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