Arsenal have been fined £60,000 (83,500 euros, $92,000)and
warned over their future conduct for falling foul of football agent rules in
the transfer of Calum Chambers from Southampton, the Football Association has
announced. Agent Alan Middleton was fined £30,000 and suspended for three
months for his part in the transfer.
months for his part in the transfer.
Chambers moved from Saints to the Gunners in July 2014 for
an undisclosed fee, believed to be in the region of £11 million. An FA
statement read: “Arsenal admitted part of the breach (of Football Agent
Regulations) but denied another, which was found not proven following an
Independent Regulatory Commission. “The charges against Mr Middleton,
which he denied, were found proven.”
The written reasons for the sanctions described the incident
as a classic case of “fronting”, where an unauthorised and unlicensed agent was
involved. A statement from Arsenal read: “We acted in good faith
throughout in this transfer and had no reason to believe that the player’s
representative was not authorised to be involved in the transfer negotiations.
“The FA fully recognised that there was no intention to
mislead on Arsenal’s part. “We have improved our procedures to prevent
this happening again.”
