Breaking News: Ben Arfa transfer annuled…

By: Magnusson | June 28th, 2008

I think this is the first time I’ve been litterally been shocked by a “Communiqué”. At around 11.25pm tonight, my RSS Feed went insane once again wih headlines that the official Olympique Lyonnais website just released some pretty incredible news.
I’m shocked and I’m just going to give it to you raw:

“L’Olympique Lyonnais informs that the possibility of transferring Hatem BEN ARFA to the Olympique de Marseille will not be able to materialize, none of the elements in conformity with OL demands were met today, making it impossible for any postal registration to the LFP before June 30, the deadline set during negotiations.

The OL is therefore surprised of the information wanting to formalize the transfer too hastily this week released by the Olympique de Marseille while no document was signed by the 3 parties, and of the sending Friday evening by Marseille to the Professional Football League of a letter announcing a contract that was signed by Hatem BEN ARFA without the agreement of Olympique Lyonnais.

Olympique Lyonnais, which had agreed in principle to a transfer of Hatem BEN ARFA to a french club, discussions had been initiated with OM and PSG, said the following:

No contractual agreement has been signed by the 2 clubs for the transfer of Hatem BEN ARFA

Olympique de Marseille was unable to provide the financial guarantees requested in connection with this potential transfer

No agreement has been reached with Hatem BEN ARFA and OL about his involvement on a transfer to Olympique de Marseille and, indeed, no endorsement of termination has been signed by the player who remains under contract to date with OL

No notice of change has finally been signed on the documents of the LFP by the 2 clubs and the player, a prerequisite set by the LFP for the approval of a transfer.

Accordingly, Olympique Lyonnais, for the 1st time facing this type of situation where a club is trying to get a transfer without the formalization of all official documents required by regulations, notes with regret the situation and ask Hatem BEN ARFA to be present Monday to resume training with the professional staff under the responsibility of his new coach Claude PUEL.”

This is a first. And frankly there’s something going seriously wrong at Lyon. I’m still wondering who to believe since Pape Diouf and the Marseille staff said everything was done and even sent papers to the LFP. I can’t even think how they would send those papers if they were not sure everything was done . This is the second time Lyon gets back on their word on a transfer but this is far from being over. I’m not going to get too much out there since I have ZERO information. I’ll wait for more. In the meantime, I’ll wait for the someone to speak officially on this.