Fifa Regulations Mean That Former England Centre-back Cannot Join Another Club This Year
Sol Campbell stands to pay a heavy price for walking out on his contract at Notts County as, under Fifa rules, he will now be unable to play for a new club until January, which will raise the inevitable question about his future in the game.
The former England defender turned 35 last week and by January will be sorely lacking in match fitness. Campbell may have earned 3;160,000 from his four-week dalliance with League Two County but, in another sense, he could be infinitely poorer.
Having allowed his contract at Portsmouth to expire, on 26 August Campbell signed a four-year deal at County, with the option of a fifth year. He was guaranteed to earn £10m over the course of the contract. There seems little doubt that, despite the possibility of a route into coaching at County, the money, supplied by the club’s new backers, was the principal motivating factor. Those close to Campbell had urged him to consider other opportunities at more established clubs but he struck out on his own.
Yet Campbell grew disillusioned very quickly. Although County insisted that Campbell had been aware of the five-year timescale they have set for their climb up through the divisions, the player appeared to run out of patience at certain things with indecent haste.
It is understood that he was unimpressed with the training ground, claiming that the pitch was not watered properly and, as a result, was too hard. The final and most brutal reality check for him came last Saturday, when he made his County debut at Morecambe’s Christie Park. In front of 3,335 fans, Campbell, who was some way short of full fitness, was part of the team that lost 2-1.
As he digested the events of the afternoon, he wondered what he had done and, with a five-year contract stretching in front of him, he came to the sobering conclusion that he had to get out. Campbell regularly talks of wanting things to be done “properly” and, to his mind, County had fallen short. But several figures at the club have been left bewildered.
The executive chairman, Peter Trembling, said the club were “disappointed that Sol felt he could not adjust to the long-term nature of the project”.
He added: “Perhaps things are not happening as quickly as he thought they might but this is a five-year project, not a five-week project. We can’t just become a Premier League club overnight. Sometimes decisions are made, people make wrong decisions and Sol has decided that this is not where he wants to be now.”
County agreed to cancel his registration but, under worldwide transfer rules, Campbell cannot now join another club until January, unless he were to cite an exceptional factor beyond his control that forced him to walk away from his contract. Newcastle United, with whom he held talks over the summer, will not renew their interest in him.
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