Celta Vigo are claiming they are set to take legal action over Town's swoop for striker Pablo Gonzalez Couñago. The Spanish U21 striker will be a Town player on July 1st when his contract at Celta is up. He will join on a Bosman as his current contract ends on June 1st.

However, Celta president Horacio Gomez is less than happy with proceedings and wants to take action against Town aimed at bringing £2.3 million compensation to his club. He says that his club are entitled to compensation as Couñago is under 24-years-old. Gomez said: "We are going to demand the compensation to which we have the right. We will fight in all the channels, even the judicial one."

Unsurprisingly Town see things a bit differently with David Sheepshanks vigorously defending Town's position: "We sought ratification with the FA and the player and his agent checked with FIFA and we were given confirmation from both parties that no compensation would be due. Subsequent to hearing Celta Vigo's protests we checked again and the FA repeated the confirmation that Ipswich Town had carried out the transaction entirely properly."

The situation with Bosmans as TWTD understands it is that players under 24-years-of-age can move across borders without a fee. The original court ruling on the Jean-Marc Bosman case was that the demand of a transfer fee for players out of contract across EU borders was illegal, hence the changes which subsequently occurred. Since then the Bosman rule has been extended with conventions being introduced, one of which is the compensation to players moving within national borders. This is presumably where Horacio Gomez gets the mistaken idea that his club is due compensation. Pre-contract agreements can be signed between clubs and players whose contracts have six months or less left to run. Couñago's with Celta had just over a month remaining when he signed with Town.

The situation is complicated by the ratification of the new transfer system probably on July 5th. This though should not affect the Couñago transfer, David Sheepshanks again: "As we understand it, this transaction falls outside the remit of the new transfer regulations should they come into effect later in July. We have been very careful to ensure that we have conducted ourselves properly. It is not entirely surprising that Celta Vigo are unhappy, any club that loses a young player who is out of contract would still want compensation."

Celta clearly are unhappy at losing Couñago, but the player was equally unhappy at his lack of first team opportunities under manager Victor Fernandez. However, the Celta boss says that he saw Couñago very much as part of his plans: "I wanted Pablo to stay. He has not played much as we have good players here and there have been others who I have considered more suitable at this time. It has been his choice to leave and do what he thinks is best for himself."

Horacio Gomez is apparently "displeased" that Couñago has joined Town and claims his club did all they could to keep the striker. However, the player himself was quoted in the Spanish media prior to his transfer saying: "I do not see a real interest on the part of the club." And given his move he evidently felt his future would be better served by a move.

Town themselves lost Gus Uhlenbeek on a Bosman in 1998 when he went to Fulham, just a day after he had told most at Portman Road that he would be signing a new deal at Ipswich. Two years ago the Blues also lost money on Bobby Petta. A fee of £500,000 had been agreed with Barnsley midway through the season as Petta refused to sign a new contract, but the winger decided to bide his time until the end of the season and joined Celtic on a free.

This is the second time within a year that a foreign club has threatened legal action against Town. At the end of last year Belgian side Club Brugge were unhappy at the way Town went about trying to sign Gert Verheyen and claimed they would take the matter to FIFA. Nothing more was heard then and we suspect nothing more will be heard now.

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich Town Polls