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It’s been 18 months since Chelsea sacked Antonio Conte, but we’re still paying for that decision, and, specifically, for the way we went about it. Literally.
After dragging the matter out the entire summer (even to the potential detriment of the incoming Maurizio Sarri), Chelsea sacked Conte without the severance due as per the terms of his contract. After a 10-month legal proceeding, a Premier League arbitration panel awarded the full compensation anyway, and rightly so, which was part of the £26.6m in “exceptional items” (i.e. all the payouts, including all the legal costs) that Chelsea spent that fiscal year.
There was significant #CFC cost growth: the wage bill increased by £41m (17%) to £286m, player amortisation surged £44m (36%) to £168m and other expenses rose £12m (12%) to £118m. There were also £27m exceptional costs for the departure of Antonio Conte and his coaching team.
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) January 9, 2020
But Conte wasn’t done yet. Last August, he took his case to an Employment Tribunal as well, claiming “unfair dismissal”. As we wrote at the time, these sorts of cases have a (relatively) limited maximum award, which made the case more a matter of principle (or perhaps pettiness) than something actually financially motivated.
And sure enough, as reported by the Mirror and others, the judge in charge of this Employment Tribunal proceeding has ruled in favor of Conte, and awarded him the maximum compensation £85,206 (£1,524 basic award plus the maximum compensatory award of £83,682).
A nice little new year’s bonus then for the man about to dethrone Juventus.
Hopefully this is now truly the last word on this sorry episode in club history.