Report: Tottenham accused of taking advantage of Ukraine war – Legal action could follow

Tottenham Hotspur have been accused of taking advantage of the Ukraine war by signing Manor Solomon for free, without offering the requested 30 per cent sell-on clause.

Shakhtar Donetsk chief executive Serhiy Palkin, who has been outspoken on the matter in the past, has given an exclusive interview to the Telegraph this week, accusing Spurs of acting like a ‘robber on the road’.

Tottenham signed Manor Solomon on a free transfer last summer when FIFA allowed all non-Ukrainian nationals playing in the country to suspend their contracts.

This meant that Shakhtar were unable to claim a fee for the winger, who had spent the previous season on loan in the Premier League with Fulham.

Tottenham accused of robbery in Manor Solomon deal

Palkin has now revealed that he asked Tottenham for a 30 or 40 per cent sell-on clause, as Shakhtar realised that negotiating a straight fee would be unlikely. However, Daniel Levy and co allegedly offered just 10 per cent of any future sale to the Ukrainian club.

The Shakhtar chief executive has publically called out the North Londoners for their treatment of his club, while adding that the likes of Real Madrid and Corinthians have acted admirably in other deals.

It has even been suggested that legal action could follow, with talks between Shakhtar and Tottenham now non-existent.

Palkin said: “I am feeling very bad towards Tottenham. I cannot believe this kind of club with a huge history – not just European level, world level – that they can behave like this. From my point of view, it’s not acceptable behaviour. They have taken advantage of the war.

“Maybe if this was a very small club in Europe with not much money or whatever, maybe I could understand it. But Tottenham? Tottenham. How is it possible?

“It’s very strange that everybody says we are one football family, when one of the top clubs receives a player free of charge and the market value of this player is up to €25 million (£21.15 million). We invested in this player and developed this player for this kind of value.

“I even said to Tottenham: ‘Guys, I don’t need money for him now. Let’s have some kind of sell-on fee in the future like 30 or 40 per cent. That would be enough for us.’ But they said: ‘No, no, we cannot give you. We’ll give you 10 per cent.’ I said: ‘Guys, that’s not serious.’

“Giving us 10 per cent is not respectful. You behave not like the football family. You behave like a robber on the road. It’s not correct. Therefore, at this moment we will see the next steps.

“We have stopped any negotiations with Tottenham. We are concentrating on a court case against Lyon and we will see the result of that and after that, we will make a decision about what kind of steps we will take against Tottenham.”

Real Madrid showed more class than Tottenham, says Palkin

He added: “We have two sides, a legal side and a moral side. The court will decide the legal side. About the moral side, when I talked with Tottenham, I talked about the moral part of this case.

“We have some players, Vinicius Tobias at Real Madrid and Maycon at Corinthians. Those clubs, they wanted to take our players, but they came to us and said: ‘OK, we can take them for free but we don’t want to play these dirty games.’

“Instead, they offered to pay us for loans. Real Madrid took our player and paid us for two years. Corinthians did the same. You see the difference between Real Madrid and Tottenham? The management of Real Madrid behaved themselves and how did Tottenham behave?”

Spurs Web Opinion:

I know some people will argue that ‘business is business’, but I do have to side with Palkin here. Manor Solomon was an asset to their club and they could have got decent money for him.

Spurs only got him for free because of the war in Ukraine, and should therefore be more than willing to part with around half of his future sell-on fee. That is only fair and just.