GENEVA — South American champion Botafogo, owned by American businessman John Textor, went to sport’s highest court Wednesday in a dispute over an unpaid $21 million transfer fee to Major League Soccer club Atlanta United.
The Brazilian club is challenging FIFA’s order that it must pay the full amount for signing Argentina attacker Thiago Almada, a 2022 World Cup winner, after the first two installments went unpaid last year.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said the hearing in Botafogo’s appeal against FIFA and Atlanta United went ahead Wednesday. No deadline was given for a verdict by the court in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The FIFA-published verdict of its own judge’s ruling said Botafogo had asked “for more time to ‘sort it out,'” when the Rio de Janeiro club replied to MLS’ first request for an overdue scheduled payment on behalf of Atlanta.
Almada is a 24-year-old attacker who played one game off the bench for Argentina at the 2022 World Cup.
He now plays for Atlético Madrid, which in July became his fourth different club, including two owned by Textor, in less than 13 months.
Almada was a designated player on the Atlanta squad when MLS oversaw a league-record $21 million move to Botafogo in June last year, the FIFA document said.
After playing for Argentina at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Almada moved to Brazil and helped Botafogo win the storied Copa Libertadores continental title.
FIFA’s verdict showed Botafogo was due to make $3 million payments to Atlanta in July and September last year toward settling the full amount by September 2026. The first two payments were missed and MLS sent default notices to Textor’s club.
The $6 million “indeed remained outstanding” in February, FIFA’s judge said in the ruling, which imposed a heavier fine on Botafogo because of its “previous sanctions” from the world soccer body.
“In this connection, the single judge highlighted that a repeated offense will be considered as an aggravating circumstance and lead to a more severe penalty,” FIFA said, imposing a $150,000 fine plus $25,000 legal costs on Botafogo.
FIFA also set Textor’s club a 45-day deadline to pay its debts or be banned from registering newly signed players. The sanctions await the outcome of the CAS appeal.
Loan to Textor’s Lyon In January, weeks after Botafogo won the Libertadores, Almada was loaned to Lyon — Textor’s club in France — for the rest of the season.
Lyon played under threat of demotion from Ligue 1 because of unstable finances and placed sixth to qualify for this season’s Europa League.
That resulted in English FA Cup winner Crystal Palace, where Textor was a minority owner last season, being downgraded to the third-tier Conference League because of UEFA integrity rules on club ownership. Palace failed in an appeal at CAS to overturn its demotion.
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