Shakhtar Donetsk chief executive, Sergei Palkin, has accused Tottenham of “disrespect” in offering “peanuts” during negotiations for winger Manor Solomon and threatened to take the club to court if a resolution is not found soon.
Solomon joined Spurs on a free transfer last July by taking advantage of a FIFA ruling which enables foreign players in Russia and Ukraine to unilaterally suspend their contracts following the outbreak of war in the region.
Shakhtar are one of several clubs to have contested the changes to Annex 7 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, but after appeals were rejected by FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the Ukrainian club launched legal action against specific clubs they believed to have received “unjust enrichment” by utilising the clause.
Solomon was under contract at Shakhtar until the end of 2023, meaning Spurs would have had to pay some sort of transfer fee had Annex 7 not existed. Shakhtar paid Maccabi Petah Tikva €6.5 million ($7.05m) for the winger in January 2019 and believe he had a market value of €20m.
ESPN revealed in October that the two clubs were in discussions over a possible compensation figure but those negotiations have collapsed after a failure to find an agreement.
“Since October, we have been diligently engaged in negotiations with Tottenham,” Palkin told ESPN.
“But finally Tottenham has not acted in a manner that reflects the principles of fairness and equity. In this situation, we feel a sense of disrespect from Tottenham.
“If you go deeply in my feelings during these months we have negotiated. Actually, we would like to appeal to Spurs chairman Daniel Levy to act in good faith and uphold the shared values of the European football family to find a fair way to compensate us in this transfer, what we are talking about.”