Santos defeats Cueva and Pachuca in court and will receive R$ 24 million; see case details

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If Santos aren’t performing well on the pitch, the club have secured an important victory away from home. Peixe won the “Caso Cueva”. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) ruled that the player should pay around 24 million reais to Alvinegro Praiano.

The process had been ongoing since early 2020, when Cueva terminated his contract with Santos and moved to Pachuca from Mexico. The transfer ended up generating a great deal of controversy behind the scenes. Months later, the club and the player were ordered by FIFA to pay around BRL 40 million for the unilateral breach of contract.

The Mexican team said they did not make Cueva leave Peixe. The midfielder said he canceled due to lack of commitments from Alvinegro to pay his debts. The Brazilian team replied and sent Fifa proof of having honored the commitments made with the Peruvian.

The CAS maintained the agreement on the decision issued by Fifa, in December 2020, according to which the player had no just cause to terminate the employment contract with Santos.

None of Pachuca’s arguments were accepted and Santos’ counter-arguments were all approved. According to the CAS, the Mexican club had the burden of knowing the provision of article 17.2 of the RSTP, i.e. it had to be aware of the risk of being jointly and severally liable towards the athlete, in view of the termination of the contract, the latter with Santos; Furthermore, he benefited from the termination of the employment contract by the athlete, being able to acquire the athlete’s services free of charge.

The authorities understood that R$ 17,740,161.00, corresponding to the salaries not paid by Santos to the athlete, should be considered as saved by the company, and therefore deducted from the compensation paid by the athlete, due to mutual defaults ( delays in pay and image by the company and unfair dismissal by the athlete).

R$ 2,902,261.00, corresponding to the difference between the salary foreseen in the employment contract with Pachuca and the salary foreseen in the employment contract with Peixe, should also be deducted from any compensation received by the paulistas.

However, the Board maintained the agreement that Santos paid Krasnodar the amount of R$ 23,904,600.00, for the transfer of the athlete, and considered this amount as the sole parameter of the compensation due to Alvinegro. To define the final amount of compensation, CAS depreciated the amount paid to Krasnodar by the equivalent of the period in which the athlete played for Santos (approximately one year).

Thus, the final compensation owed by the athlete is BRL 21 million, which, with interest of 5% per annum from 06.08.2020, reaches the amount of BRL 24 million. The information was initially disclosed by the Throw away! and shaped by Gazzetta dello Sport.

in touch with Gazzetta dello Sportthe lawyer Cristiano Caús, who defended Santos in court, justified the delay in completing the trial.

“As soon as Cueva left, in 2020, Santos filed a lawsuit against him and he immediately moved to Pachuca. The parties asked for the documents to be published in full. The decision would only be published in full in 2021. A May 2021 they filed the appeal. The hope was in a response by September. CAS asked for an extension. There were four or five extensions. During this time there was covid-19. There was a lot of trial because of the covid. They didn’t have sufficient conditions,” he said.

Cueva was signed by Santos in 2019 for $7 million. He hasn’t scored a goal in 16 official matches played.

“For Santos it is very important because we have heard many people saying that the courts will favor athletes. The court must favor those who have acted correctly. An athlete cannot, with a contract in force, leave without just cause just because he wants to move. He has I did all this in a few days as the Mexican window was closing. For Santos it is very important because an athlete cannot terminate an existing contract without compensation,” Cristiano said.

“And a club can’t enter into this adventure. Santos showed Cueva that you can’t act like that. It was important for us because it was a very complex case. I’ve been working with football since 2002. I’ve been doing it for 20 years” . court which is in Europe… we had a favorable sentence against great lawyers. I also want to thank Rueda, he congratulated us. Also the legal department of the club. Rueda was very happy,” he added.

UNDERSTANDING CAS

The athlete had no reason to terminate the employment contract with Santos, as none of the requirements of article 14bis of the RSTP were met;

There was no segregation of the Athlete in relation to the training of the main team and, even if there had been, the duration of the separate training was only 2 weeks, not being sufficient to give rise to the termination of the employment relationship;

The exclusion of the athlete in relation to the Paulista Championship has not been envisaged, as it does not constitute grounds for termination for just cause.

PACHUCA’S ARGUMENTS

He did not participate in the resolution on Cueva’s initiative and had numerous contacts with Santos to immediately communicate his interest in signing the athlete;

No benefit from the termination of the athlete’s employment contract, considering that the link between Pachuca and Cueva lasted only 4 months, during which he played only 52 minutes, and subsequently remained free; so that Pachuca received nothing as a transfer fee.

SANTOS’ COUNTER-ARGUMENTS

Pachuca enticed the player and was responsible for terminating his contract with Santos, in order to take advantage of the Mexican transfer window;

The joint liability of the subsequent company is objective and requires no fault in the termination of the previous contract;

Pachuca benefited from the free hiring of the athlete and Santos had paid 7 million euros (R $ 23,904,600.00, at the time) to Krasnodar.