Taking The Pistoiese

"Aye, ye were worth every penny ya Useless lump of wid!" Partick Thistle it seems, have just been shafted by FIFA, The SFA and the Italian equivelent of East Stirlingshire for £20,000. The costs are alledgedly for the "Training Compensation" of one Adrian Madaschi(two links). It seems the club signed him as a free agent from Italian club Atalanta. Prior to this he had been on loan to a small Italian Serie C club called AC Pistoiese. Needless to say, if we'd known we would have to pay out for the hopeless big fud we wouldn't have bothered signing him.................... The rammifications for any club taking on young players before they turn 24 could be very severe. I can see now how the club will have to pay up, but the rule has been abused and it's only a matter of time before it happens to a club with a deal more clout than Thistle and the loopholes are closed. On the other hand, if Thistle sit back and let it happen, a precedent will have been set and it will make fighting any future claims very hard indeed. I know 20 grand is small change in Premiership terms, but believe me, when your club has fallen two divisions in two years, has to pay for the upkeep of a 10,000 capacity stadium they were Blackmailed into building, plays to average crowds of about two and a half thousand and loses out on players to a team from a village on the English/Scottish border due to the tightness of it's budget................20 grand is an awful lot of money. A couple of related links for perusal: Court Case In Denmark Evening Times