Arsenal turns to Slaughters for Fàbregas sale
Slaughter and May partner Andrew Jolly has advised Arsenal Football Club on the sale of captain Cesc Fàbregas to FC Barcelona.
The deal, worth up to £35m, sees the European champions snatch the Spanish midfield player on a five-year contract.
The north London club is set to earn £29m from the sale of the 24-year-old and an additional amount if Barcelona win two La Liga titles and a Champions League in the next five years. The contract also includes a buy-out clause at just over £175m.
FC Barcelona is understood to have relied on in-house advice for the deal.
Slaughters is Arsenal’s firm of choice, with Jolly and fellow corporate partner Nigel Boardman leading advice on player transfers, M&A and the financing of the Emirates Stadium (2 May 2011).
Jolly advised the club on the sale of striker Thierry Henry to Barcelona in 2007 and the transfer of Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Touré to Manchester City in 2009.
He also acted for Arsenal FC opposite Clifford Chance on Stan Kroenke’s £731m takeover of the club earlier this year (13 April 2011).
Meanwhile, Berwin Leighton Paisner litigation partner Graham Shear acted for Spanish side Atlético Madrid on financing related to the £35m sale of striker Sergio Agüero to Manchester City. Manchester City FC was advised in-house by general counsel Simon Cliff.
Readers' comments (8)
Paul Merson | 16-Aug-2011 3:09 pm
I wouldn't be proud of this. An asset sold well below the correct value – should have got 40 million for a start. A transfer so protracted it has been completed leaving Arsenal just 2 weeks to sign a replacement before the deadline thereby putting next year's Champions League place at risk and leaving Arsenal with no replacement for tonight's UCL qualifier. The transfer was a total shambles and I for one would not be very proud of "advising " on this. The deal should have been done in June / July when professionally run clubs like Man Utd and Liverpool did their business. Shameful.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Trevor McDoughnut - News at Ten | 16-Aug-2011 3:35 pm
When does the transfer window ACTUALLY close Paul ?
Man Utd bought Berbatov with 6 mins to spare.
Modric to goa day before the window... to Chelsea !
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Michael Dandy | 16-Aug-2011 5:00 pm
This transfer was foreseeable and understandable since last year, but for some reasons it took so long that no one can boast about it. It left us with little option about replacements.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Martin | 16-Aug-2011 7:44 pm
Surely the point is that Arsenal were holding no cards. Cesc is one of the best midfielders in Europe and his heart was always with Barcelona. Arsenal "nicked" him as a 16 year old and under paid for his potential. Last summer transfer Barcelona offerred some stupid amount and Xavi started chirping away, and, at the time, Arsenal thought that they were in a strong position - 3+ years left on contract etc. This summer transfer Cesc has made it obvious that he wants to go nowhere else, so no bidding war then. What can Arsenal do? Hold on to him another year and get even less or try and do the best deal this year. We all know he is worth £50m plus in these crazy times but only that if some one is willing, or has, to pay that. The timing of the transfer was also due to the "play" by Barcelona to try and get their own back - not forgetting that Arsenal have "nicked" another one from their youth team. I think a job well done in the circumstances. The worse thing is Arsenal are only getting £14.5m or so now but let us hope we sign some really good players soon eh
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Frank | 17-Aug-2011 9:26 am
Paul - Champion league at risk ? I never knew CL is the priority for arsenal. Mind focusing on winning the english title first ?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 17-Aug-2011 10:46 am
Paul,
I am fairly certain Slaughters would have advised on the content of the contract put in place between Arsenal and Barcelona, not on the commercial or strategic aspects of the sale. These things tend to fall outside the remit of solicitors' advice....
I'm sure it would have been rather unwelcome if Andrew had started advising the Arsenal board that if they sell Cesc they will finish fifth or sixth in the league at best!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Pal Lydersen | 17-Aug-2011 2:05 pm
Obviously, this was a terrible piece of business by Arsenal. But, fun as it is to blame Slaughters for the club's apparently never-emding woes, it's a bit far fetched. I'm imaging the following scenario...
Wenger: "I'm having a 'mare, Christopher. I can't get Samba, Cahill or Jegielka cheap enough and that donkey Djourou's just gone down with ankle knack too. What should I do?"
Chris Saul: "Calm down, geezer. Keep Tommy V sweet by giving him the armband, stick Song at the back in the meantime and there's this 15-year-old at Charlton who can play left or right and you can get him for half a bag of pork scratchings and a subscription to Viz. That'll be 600 grand please. Oh, and could you tell Marouane to drop my dry cleaning off at the office?"
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
baser akoodie | 17-Aug-2011 6:25 pm
there are a number of law firms that could have done the deal . wonder what legal fees arsenal paid to the large city firm.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment