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Nwakali’s ex-club petitions English FA over Arsenal’s alleged refusal to compensate academy

Kelechi Nwakali’s former club, ASJ Football Academy of Owerri, has called out English Premier league club, Arsenal, claiming the London club deceived them from making a Training Compensation claim in 2016 when Nwakali joined them (The Gunners).

Kelechi Nwakali

Kelechi Nwakali’s former club, ASJ Football Academy of Owerri, has called out English Premier league club, Arsenal, claiming the London club deceived them from making a Training Compensation claim in 2016 when Nwakali joined them (The Gunners).

Nwakali joined the club then under Arsene Wenger after winning the Golden Boot at the FIFA U17 Championship in 2015.

The team’s General Manager, Emeka Amajiriaku, stated yesterday that after Nwakali’s transfer in 2016, they approached Arsenal for Training and Solidarity compensation, adding that Arsenal lied to them that they were not entitled to Training compensation. He hinted that The Gunners paid them only Solidarity compensation.

“We trusted them and believed them, but we did not know that Arsenal were deliberately deceiving us. When we found out last year, they lied to us again that they paid Diamond Football Academy $10,000 as Training Compensation, an amount equivalent to a sum representing the years of registration that Kelechi was playing for ASJ Academy. They then offered us a miserly $5,000 ‘in full and final settlement that would close this matter to the satisfaction of both parties.”

He continued: “Of course, this offer was unacceptable and out rightly rejected. ASJ Academy trained Kelechi from the years of his 12-17th birthday, which, by the FIFA Training Costs and Categorisation of clubs amounts to 220, 000 euros and we demanded our full payment.

“Arsenal then said they won’t pay, that the transfer happened more than two years ago and so is statute barred. We reminded them that we approached them on time and they deceived us, but they didn’t say anything again.

“Our lawyer, Barrister Johnny Ogbah of Activity Chambers has already reported them to The English FA, but we will not stop there. We will explore all legal avenues to get justice. It is unfair that a big club like Arsenal could stoop so low as to lie and deceive a small club like us. I am confident we will get justice in the case,” Amajiriaku stated.

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