The amount of PLN 2.5 million in the transfer in 2020 is dragging the current player of the Polish national team Jakub Model to English Brighton & Howe Albion. The Supreme Court first wants to explain the issue of the so -called a neos in the composition of the Court of Appeal dealing with the dispute.
“The Supreme Court is not able to issue a ruling today, because (…) the court ex officio takes the issue of invalidity of the proceedings. In this case, doubts arose whether the proceedings before the Court of Appeal is not affected by such a disadvantage, because in the issue of the decision the judge appointed to the office of a judge of the Court of Appeal took part in the request of the National Council of the Judiciary in the composition shaped in 2018,” – said on Friday the chairman Judge Grzegorz Misiurek in the SN.
As the judge Misiurek added, “the Supreme Court must clarify this issue ex officio and to seek documents regarding the nomination proceedings before the National Court Register, as well as examine documents from the judge's personal files.” The trial before the Supreme Court on Friday was postponed without a deadline.
This is another return in the dispute that has been ongoing for several years regarding the payment for the transfer of a footballer. This dispute became loud and was described in the media, because Model's transfer to the English club in 2020 was described as “record”.
Born in 1999, he spent the beginnings of his football career in KS Warta Poznań. In the years 2011-2014 he was a player of the youth groups of Warta, and then – in 2014 – he moved to Lech Poznań.
In the contract with Lech Warta at that time, she secured five percent of the amount from the possible future transfer of a talented young footballer playing as a helper. In 2020, such a transfer took place – Moder went to English Brighton & Howe Albion for a record amount. According to unofficial information, it amounted to over 10 million euros. In this respect, on the basis of an earlier contract, Warta was to receive about PLN 2.5 million.
Lech Poznań does not question the need to pay this amount, but the problem arose when two Warta Poznań turned to Lech for money. One is a company – Warta Poznań SA – running a football section and, among others The club currently playing in the first league. The second Warta is an association – KS Warta. They train in it, among others Tennis players, swimmers, swordsmen, hockey players on the grass and canoeists.
In the last decade, athletes, whose fans identify with Warta Poznań, do not represent one entity, because the club underwent a number of structural changes.
Over 10 years ago, a sponsor from the development industry began to manage the football section, and the president was the model Izabela Łukomska-Pyżalska. In 2015, a contract was written about the takeover by the sponsor of the Football Section KS Warta by the new entity Warta Poznań SA. Five years later – in 2020 – the new owners of Warta Poznań SA, based on the next contract, took over the other junior football teams from the Association.
In connection with the modera transfer and the need to pay previously guaranteed funds from this transfer, the interpretation of both contracts, liabilities and effects that they could have had.
The Poznań District Court recognized in the summer of 2022 that the money for Model's transfer was due to the KS Warta Association, not the company. SO decided, among others, that both contracts did not complete all the requirements necessary for this type of contracts and it could not be presumed that they covered the claim related to the modera transfer.
Representatives of KS Warta emphasize that the footballer really had nothing to do with the current football company Warta Poznań SA. “From the very beginning it was KS Warta who educated Jakub Model,” they pointed out.
The football company appealed to the Court of Appeal in Poznań, which in May 2023 set aside the judgment of SO and ruled that the money belonged to Warta Poznań SA. The Court of Appeal at that time assumed that in the context of two complementary contracts from 2015 and 2020, the football sections were taken over with receivables and obligations, and therefore the presumption that SO talked about, should be used. The Court of Appeal, referring to the Moder case, decided that “KS Warta has not been entitled to all kinds of claims resulting from the sale of this player.”
“From the beginning, we stood in the opinion that the entire football section on the path of these contracts was transferred to the company. Therefore, all rights and all obligations related to football were taken over by the company,” emphasized then the representative of Warta Poznań SA.
After the decision of the Court of Appeal, KS Warta filed a cassation appeal to the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court. The Friday decision of the Supreme Court means that you will still have to wait for the final resolution of this dispute.
Jakub Moder is currently a player of the Dutch Feyenoord Rotterdam. Until now, he played 33 matches in the Polish senior national team and scored two goals in them. He also appeared in the last two matches of the Polish team at the National Stadium – March 21 with Lithuania (1: 0) and March 24 with Malta (2: 0).
Marcin Jabłoński (PAP)
MJA/ MOK/ MHR/
