Surely not? It’s neither Puerta’s nor Leverkusens fault? How could they be made or asked to pay any wages back?
Yes I do agree there's a case to be made that if our contractual obligation has been null and voided then any subsequent payment of wages is also null and voided.
He legally remains a Bayer Leverkusen player. This means Leverkusen must keep paying his wages. We only take over once the transfer is officially registered and under the terms of our EFL imposed Fee Restrictions we were prevented from registering him. MoH
From the EFL rules on Embargoes and Fee Restrictions: “When a club is under a registration embargo, they cannot register any new players, including permanent deals or loans, unless the League gives approval. Until that registration is completed, the club that holds the player’s existing contract remains responsible for paying him.” So, unless Puerta signed with Hull and the EFL approved it, he was never our player. From what I can see, no approval was given. He was not registered as Hull City’s player. Why I think that: A footballer must always be under contract with a club. Puerta stayed contracted to Bayer Leverkusen until a contract with Hull was signed and cleared by the EFL. If we could not register him because of the embargo and subsequent fee restrictions, his Leverkusen contract carried on. It cannot just end, otherwise he would have no employer. Hull might have agreed to cover some or all of his wages in the meantime, but legally he stayed a Leverkusen player. Any reimbursement would need to go through the EFL Contract and Registrations Unit (CFRU). That’s the simple picture: without EFL approval of the permanent deal, Puerta stays on Leverkusen’s books, even if we had promised to buy him under an obligation triggered during his loan agreement. MoH
So why would we pay him when 1. The club was short of money and. 2. We could have sent him back to his parent club rather than training with us and risk injury.
The buy obligation meant we could not just send him back unless Leverkusen agreed. Legally he remained their player until the EFL cleared any registration, so they paid him. That left a compromise where he trained with us, Leverkusen stayed as the employer, and any wage sharing would have been reported to the EFL CFRU. MoH
Have the minutes been posted for this appeal hearing, by the way? Or do we have to wait six weeks for them to be published?