Rohan Ricketts' Moldovan Nightmare

Paully D

A very interesting read and a good insight into how mad things are in some places with regards to football:

http://www.column10.com/2011/05/rohan-ricketts-moldovan-nightmare-forced-to-play-unpaid-and-leave-the-country/

It’s been five months since I left Moldova, after a brief three-month stint. Many of you were surprised when I signed for FC Dacia. Well after reading this, you will get a shock as to why I ended up leaving after only three months.

For those of you who did not understand my decision to sign for Dacia, I completely see where you were coming from, bearing in mind the calibre of the previous teams I have played for in my career. But the pressure today in the market for players to find a club, and find one in time to start the season with a good fitness base, is stronger than ever. I never thought I would be signing in Moldova, especially after I had been faxed through two deals from a Turkish agent in early June. Just days after committing to one of the offers, I got a phone call stating that the club had sacked their coach and the offer was withdrawn. At this point the agent had run out of options. It was mid-July and I was in

Toronto, unsigned, while teams had already begun pre-season training.

I knew that I could not be as picky as before. I needed to make sure that I was back in the game, playing and maintaining a decent level of fitness. So when the offer came to go to Moldova, I was initially like, ‘errrrr never’. Then, after a couple days of non-activity from another agent who was working for me in Europe, I felt I had to move on this deal. Little did I know what I was walking in to.

The agent who took me to Moldova goes by the name of Leonid Shatan. He said that I would be treated professionally and that the club would follow the contract as the agreement stated.

It wasn’t long before the bizarre signs started to become evident. It was my first game and the team hadn’t played well in a goalless draw against Academia. The day after the game, there was a mini meeting at the hotel where the squad was told that they would not be getting a salary for the following month due to their performance. Immediately I was alarmed by such crazy comments. I got straight on the phone to Leonid to let him know and he called the president. The president assured him that I would get my money as I had only just joined the team and was not to blame. I took his words as gospel – like a real idiot, when I look back at it.

Two weeks later Leonid flew into Moldova to meet with the club and pick up his agent’s fee, which I was not initially aware of. It was a sizeable amount, which I will not disclose. This fee was apparently split between Leonid and another European agent. On his stay, Leonid sat with me and the president to discuss the money I was owed for the first month. The president said I would get it in three days – which was going to be a Wednesday. Before leaving, Leonid left me some cash as a gesture for allowing him to do the deal. Wednesday came and went, leading me to believe that the president had told me another blatant lie. I never received a penny nor a conversation regarding what we had agreed on. Instead of kicking up a fuss and effing and blinding, I gave FIFA a call and asked for their guidance through the situation. They were very helpful and gave me step by step advice. They told me that I had to wait at least three months before I could file a claim and report the club to them (FIFA).

So the wait was on. I could see the club were making no attempt to pay me a penny, even though they were paying the other members of the team. My close friends Diego, Imran and Goran all signed for the club after me and they all received their salary. This in itself was strange, and I started to gauge that it was a personal situation.

Two months passed and still no salary. I really began to get frustrated, but I knew I was not in a legal position to take any decisive action so I just kept the peace and kept training hard. I then received a strange letter from the president telling me that I had given an interview behind his back about my stay in Moldova which was a lie. This was an article that I had written.

This was followed up by a random meeting at the hotel, where the president said he did not feel I was performing well and wanted me to take a wage cut. I wanted to burst out laughing! How could I take a wage cut on money that I wasn’t being paid?! Bizarre, yes I know.

He said that if I did not take the cut, I would risk not getting paid a penny. I told him that I would not take a cut as that would be illegal and I was going to keep working hard in training as I had been. He then gave me an option to take a cut and he would guarantee that I started every game. I said no thanks – I would rather earn my spot and my full salary.

I could tell that he didn’t like that I stood up for myself. I was never rude, just fair. I respected him as a man and I wanted him to show me respect by fulfilling the contract that he had agreed with me.

After this meeting, I never got on the pitch again. I don’t think I was ever even on the subs bench. I couldn’t do anything about this. Even doing extra training was a problem for them. I’ve never seen a professional football club stop players from doing more training to improve themselves. Ludicrous!

Later came a friendly game with a Romanian premier division team. Before the game the president met with me to tell me that this was my final game to show him that I wanted to play for his club. I told him that I had nothing to prove to him as I had been training hard every day, despite receiving nothing for two and a half months. He said I would get my money in a few days after I had shown him I wanted to play for his club.

The friendly game came and went. I was man of the match and the entire staff was, all of sudden, all over me. The sporting director came to my hotel room, where I lived, to congratulate me on my performance and find out how much money I was owed. He said that the president would arrange my money for me that week. I took what he said with a pinch of salt and began to wait once more.

Leonid watched the game with the president and told me that he was going to pressure him for my money as he could not understand why they didn’t want to pay me. Especially after dominating the whole game right in front of him.

Two weeks had gone by and it had now been three months without getting paid. I even had money and other valuables stolen from my room. It really got unbearable, but as FIFA had said, I had to wait three months. Now that the deadline had arrived and they had not responded to any of my warning letters or paid me, I began to write out my summary of events to file with my claim to FIFA.

There I was, writing out this letter and preparing to give the club the letter of termination, not realising that they had something up their sleeve. Yup, there’s a twist!

These guys had decided to release four players and I was one of them. They said they were cancelling contracts on the grounds of nothing. They gave Diego, Vitalik and Imran one month’s salary and told them to leave the country or they would not get a penny. You know what they did right? They got the hell out of there!

They initially told me the same thing but, after giving me the letter that stated I could leave them for free, they realised that I could use that against them in the case. The same guy who came to my room to give me the document, re-entered my room 30 minutes later, asking for it back, saying that something needed to be changed and I would get it back in an hour.

I waited the whole day and they never brought back the letter. The next day they came to me, with Goran Stankovski translating, and told me that I had to leave the hotel and the country immediately and that they were giving me until 6pm to decide which country I wanted them to fly me to. I couldn’t believe it!

I told them that I couldn’t leave the hotel as it was my home in the country. The whole team lived there. In reply, they said that if I didn’t remove my things, they would have them put on the street and I would be banned from entering. Upon this, I packed my bags immediately. As I was taking my bags out of the hotel, the sporting director came to shake my hand and say goodbye. I stared at him like he was crazy. The guy had just kicked me out and threatened to have my things thrown on the street and now he wanted to shake my hand. My stare and reluctance to take his hand, resulted in him lashing out verbally in Russian. I couldn’t understand him, but I could interpret his frustration.

I spent the next few days at my team mate Diego’s house. He was still in the city mulling over the ultimatum they gave him about cancelling his contract and taking one month’s salary or declining and getting no salary, being left to rot training on his own. The worst thing was, his mum had accompanied him all the way from Argentina and the club still showed no empathy towards them. Disgusting!

During my stay at Diego’s, I organised all my evidence which I had collected throughout my time there. I had recorded phone calls with the agent Leonid Shatan, where he would tell me what the president had said and how the club would treat me. I had to record video footage of when I went with Diego to collect my contracts from the club office. I even had to record my own team mates when they were translating to me that the club was not going to give me back the document that set me free, and they wanted me out of the hotel and would throw my stuff out on the street. I stressed to them that what they were doing was illegal but they did not care and told me I must leave and find a club and then call them. I did not like recording all of this but I had to make sure I had strong evidence to back up my case. The players will probably hate me for it but hey, they were only the messenger.

After filing my claim with FIFA I sent the club the last letter and got them to book my flight to London. I was so happy to get out of the country safe and sound.

After this, I was on a quest to find a new club, while my new agents worked in tandem with FIFA on getting my release forms from Dacia. This proved so difficult that it stopped me from signing for bigger clubs in Germany. None of the clubs wanted to wait on the process, which could have taken up to four months. I was fortunate that my present club were willing to fight for it. It was a 21 day process. Correspondence between FIFA and my club was fine but the officials at Dacia were trying to lie through their teeth. They told FIFA that they never knew that I had left the country and that I left of my own accord. They told them that they expected me to come back to winter training with them in January. These were all lies and I have all the evidence to prove that. After the 21 days, FIFA had both arguments from Dacia and I, and with this they made the decision that allowed me to play football professionally again. I was finally free to play. I was still a bit disturbed to think that Dacia would be so bitter and evil towards me, by trying to stop me earning a living or just playing games, after I had never disrespected the president or any members of the club.

I didn’t want it to come to this as when I first met the President of FC Dacia we had a good relationship. He seemed really happy about me being there and about the prospects for the team. I thought that he was a man of his word, but as time went by I began to see his true colours. I have reached out to him via Leonid Shatan numerous times to try to find an amicable solution. He has said that I will not get a penny and he wants to stop me from playing until my contract expiry date, which was 2012. Why would a man, who has much more important things to do, want to stop a young boy from continuing his career? This is a question many have asked me.

Private lawyers and lawyers at FIFA have assured me that my evidence, together with the cases of Goran Stankovski and Diego Pereya, will allow me to collect my salaries over the 2 year contract. They said that the video and phone call recordings would not be needed as the summary of events in itself is enough. This is fine with me, as I have no wish to ruin the reputation of Dacia and the Moldovan Football League. There are some good people at Dacia, but I have to be treated fairly and paid my well-earned salary.

I have kept this private and out of the media for five months, hoping that Leonid Shatan, Dacia and I, could find a solution without it being public. Many TV and media outlets have offered money for me to speak. But I have declined as it’s my salary that I want, not for the club to lose credibility. I hope this reaches the president and FC Dacia and we find a compromise. If not FIFA will proceed with the case.