'All Of A Sudden' - Stefan Borson: Chelsea are 'acting unlawfully' after blocking sensation from playing

Chelsea appear to be acting unlawfully after blocking teenage sensation Josh Acheampong from playing for any of their teams until he signs a new contract.

That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider there isn’t currently anything anyone can do about the situation despite it appearing to be a “restraint of trade”.

The Athletic reported on 22 October Acheampong will not play for any of Chelsea’s first team or development sides until he agrees a new deal.

The 18-year-old, who has made two senior appearances for the club, is under contract at Stamford Bridge until June 2026.

The Times reported on 22 October Chelsea have been left “bewildered” by the situation as they believed a new deal had been agreed with the defender.

Josh Acheampong unlikely to walk out on Chelsea contract

Borson doesn’t expect Acheampong to walk out on his contract despite the club appearing to be acting unlawfully.

“Chelsea have denied it actually,” Borson told Football Insider.

“They said something slightly different, which was that they thought they had agreed a contract, so they were surprised by what he said.

“But clearly, his family or agent are briefing the press that that’s the Chelsea position. It doesn’t seem to me to be lawful, but the problem is, what’s he really going to do about it?

“The only way of really testing it is to go and do effectively something like Lassana Diarra, where you walk out and effectively say that you’ve got just cause to walk out the door, and then you go and find another club.

“The problem with that is you don’t know when it goes to FIFA to decide, whether FIFA are going to say it was just cause or not.

“If it turns out that it’s without just cause and you’ve made a decision to leave wrongly, what happens is the club that you go to is going to be liable for the compensation.

“The compensation for a player like him could be £20million or maybe even more and then, all of a sudden, a club that thought they were getting a player for free ends up having to pay a huge fee, so they are just not going to take the risk.

“He’s probably not going to take the risk either, so until the rules get changed following the Diarra case and that’s months and probably years off, I don’t think he would be prepared to test this.

“I think technically it is unlawful. It seems to me to be a clear restraint of trade, where you’re basically saying ‘You will not play unless you sign a contract’, especially when the player has already got a contract until 2026.

“It seems that it is unlawful, but nobody can do anything about it.”

In other news, Chelsea hit hurdle over £30million deal after Man City news.

For more Chelsea and exclusive news, follow us on Facebook or join our brand new WhatsApp Channel for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone.

The post 'All Of A Sudden' - Stefan Borson: Chelsea are 'acting unlawfully' after blocking sensation from playing appeared first on Football Insider.