Cough Up Or Quit.

Mutu seen here at the Showdown in Chinatown this summer. Picture by Spectator.

Fiorentina forward and former Chelsea star Adrian Mutu will be  forced to retire at midnight tonight unless he finds 14.6 million UK pounds. That’s the amount of money he owes Chelsea after the drug scandal that led to his sacking was decided in court. Back in July  the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) upheld Chelsea’s claim, quashing Mutu’s hopes that his appeal would settle his 5 year battle with the south London club. If Mutu does not pony up all the cash by tonight’s deadline then Chelsea will move to have him banned from football.

The Romanian hitman is currently at Fiorentina where he has been very successful, scoring an average of 1 goal every 2 games since arriving from Juventus in 2006. At 30 years old, it would appear that Mutu has a few years left to play yet and he will be desperate for help finding the cash. Mutu was dropped from yesterday’s game, but according to Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli, his omission was purely due to injury… “Adrian had a slight muscular problem and so we preferred not to risk him on an uneven surface”.

Chelsea’s hard stance over the money has caused an outrage in Italy where Fiorentina’s owners have asked for the FA and the government to get involved. 

14.6 million is a lot of money, but if Fiorentina want Mutu to keep banging in goals for them, then they will pay Chelsea what he owes. When they signed the Romanian international back in 06, they were aware of the case and unless they were stupid, aware that Mutu losing his appeal would mean a huge payout to the blues. Seeing that Mutu has scored 53 goals in 99 games and is an integral part of Fiorentina’s future, they really should see settling with Chelsea a no-brainer. Replacing him would likely cost more anyway. I’ll update this story as more news is released later today.