Second The groupSaint-Etienne will receive a € 2.5 million bonus from Arsenal if William Saliba enters the Coupe de France final behind the PSG.
While the Ligue 1 season was canceled in late April and the title subsequently awarded to PSG, there seems to be a determination to play the cup final behind closed doors before the giants of the Parc des Princes resume their Champions campaign League in August.
The problem for the Ligue 1 club is that Arsenal has to accept that the defender extends his loan agreement to that date and it seems very unlikely that we will, given that the bonus clause will be triggered by the central defender making a 17th start of the season. At present, he has made 16 starts and an appearance as a subtitle.
Yes, 17 starts sounds like a random number of games.
As transmitted by Receive news about football in France, along with a Champions League qualifying clause (worth € 2.5 million), it was Arsenal who took out an appearance-based incentive during last summer’s negotiations because they wanted to make sure their new purchases in cash they would get minutes of play this season. We apparently said we would pay if he hit 30 starts, but he reserved the right to veto the player he presented twice a week.
Saint-Etienne thought it was nonsense and swapped us by agreeing to pay the bonus if he started a third of their games. If the season had come to its originally scheduled end, 52 games would have been. Hence the goal of being 17 games for Saliba.
At present, Saliba has started a higher proportion of Saint-Étienne games than necessary (39% of 41 games), but as you can imagine, Arsenal will likely try to sneak away with technicality. The group predicts that legal teams could be involved.
Claude Puel tells the media at this lunchtime press conference that St Étienne has not yet reached an agreement with Arsenal that would allow William Saliba to play in the Coupe de France final against PSG on July 24th. As it stands, it will start on June 30th.
– Receive news about French football (@GFFN) on June 24, 2020
What Saliba does about the situation is anyone’s guess.
The nineteen-year-old risks losing a cup final with his youth club if remembered by us on July 1st and, worse still, according to FIFA rules, he will not be able to present himself for Arsenal until the new season. Presumably, we’ll send him on vacation or ask him to start a pre-season training program.
It’s possible that we will take the chin bonus (LOL) and let it play, but can you imagine what would happen if he got injured?
However, it all seems unnecessarily complicated, but here we are, it’s Arsenal. Here’s how we go downhill these days.
