Leeds United: Twist in Jean-Kevin Augustin transfer saga revealed | OneFootball

Leeds United have withdrawn their appeal from the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) against an award of £24.5 million in compensation to former striker Jean-Kevin Augustin.

The Athletic has been told, by CAS, that the Championship club's appeal over FIFA's decision to order Leeds to pay an eight-figure sum to Augustin would not be ruled upon by its judiciary.

Jean-Kevin Augustin: a financial and logistics nightmare

2019/20 saw Leeds have their best opportunity in years to return to the Premier League. So, in the January transfer window, they looked to strengthen by adding Augustin to their squad.

He was brought in on loan from German club RB Leipzig, and a clause was inserted into the contract which stated that the Yorkshire club would take him on permanently, for a fee of £18 million, if they got promoted to the Premier League.

That is exactly what they did, but this was an unusual season. Covid-19 put massive delays on everything, and United didn't play their final game of that season until late July.

It became clear quite quickly after he joined that the Frenchman wasn't what Marcelo Bielsa was looking for, and he only played 48 minutes for the club.

But, they got promoted to the top flight of English football, and Leipzig were expecting their payment of £18 million. However, Leeds pulled out of the deal, owing to the fact that the delay to the season that Covid caused made the clause in the deal: "elapse," as per The Athletic.

Leipzig lodged a complaint to FIFA about this, which they won, and this decision was then upheld by CAS after Leeds appealed it. The Whites ended up agreeing on a £15 million fee in December 2022.

The German club weren't the only ones claiming that they were in need of compensation. Augustin submitted a separate claim to FIFA, and documents that were released by the governing body showed that he had negotiated a five-year deal worth £93,000 per week, plus a £2.5 million signing bonus.

FIFA partially ruled in his favour, awarding him £24.5 million last year. Leeds tabled an appeal to CAS, but, according to The Athletic, that process has been cut short without further ruling.

The Jean-Kevin Augustin deal is one of the worst in history

If Leeds' withdrawal of their appeal means that they have committed to paying the money that FIFA ruled that Augustin is owed, that will take their spending on him, in compensation alone, to £39.5 million. That works out at over £800,000 for every minute that he played for the football club.

You will struggle to find a financially worse deal than that.

Not only is this whole ordeal embarrassing and frustrating for the club, but it could impact on the money they put into player acquisition in the coming transfer windows.

The Whites have a brilliant opportunity this season to get back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, after being relegated in the 2022/23 campaign. They are in a three-way battle with Leicester City and Ipswich Town for the top two spots in the second tier, which sees the occupants of those spots win automatic promotion to the top flight.

Even though they have made a bit of a mess of a good opportunity over the past few days, by losing to Coventry City and drawing with Sunderland, they still have a great chance of going up.

They won't want to be financially hampered by stupid owed payments like this one to Augustin because that money would be of much better use to them if they could use it to improve their team.