The Independent reports:
‘Chelsea were yesterday given unprecedented backing by the Premier League to sue Adrian Mutu for the drugs offence that cost him his contract at Stamford Bridge. A three-man independent Appeals Committee, appointed by the League, ruled that Mutu was effectively sacked by himself, rather than by the club, for taking cocaine.
‘It is not unique for a club to sack a player for misconduct but Chelsea's stance of sacking then suing is a landmark case. The Committee said: "The conduct of the player... was gross misconduct which entitled the club to treat the player's contract as at an end and amounted to a unilateral breach without just cause or sporting just cause."
‘The notion of players' contracts as sacrosanct could become a thing of the past, and hiring and firing could become a legal minefield if clubs start to use behavioural issues as a means to making a player redundant, or even, taken to the logical extreme, profiting from that.
‘Such a trend would probably be supported by those who feel that standards of behaviour in the game are falling and that fines available to clubs for misconduct are meaningless to millionaire players.’