The Ben-Arfiles*: OL vs. HBA? It is … ON!

By: Magnusson | June 29th, 2008

[*= The Ben Arfiles is the name I'm gonna give all the articles on Hatem Ben Arfa until his situation is sorted out. The name is courtesy of his tunisian cousin Rami.]

Mute ever since the “Hatem Ben Arfa Affair” started, Claude Puel was the first to fire this sunday morning in L’Equipe. The newly appointed Lyonnais general manager came out and said that he wanted Hatem to be present tomorrow at the start of training like the rest of his teammates:

“Hatem wants to leave, there have been discussions, but like in every arrangement, every single entity needs to find their interest. And for the moment, that is not the case. For me, the problem is closed and there won’t be any more discussions, Hatem will have to be at the Tola-Vologe on Monday!”

At least, he has the merit to be clearer than all the declarations Lyon has been sending out via its website lately. Claude Puel never made a mystery of his wish to see Ben Arfa play for him, so he would be on eof the (very) few people happy to see this deal fail at Lyon.
On the other hand, Hatem Ben Arfa gave his first interview live from Marseille’s training ground at the Commanderie this morning at the traditionnal sunday breakfast and he himself could have hardly been clearer about his intentions:

“I’ve signed a contract with Marseille and I am very happy to have signed here. My position is clear: I know that no matter what happens, I’ll be staying here in Marseille and won’t go abck to Lyon. No matter what is being said, I am here.”

Asked how he was living the situation and if he felt stresed out by the threats, he responded:

“I live it with a lot of serenity. I know that L’om and myself, we have an idea and we won’t change it. We signed a contract and it’s done”

Adding to his version, Pape Diouf reveled to reporters that he joined Frederic Thiriez and Me Soulier (the League’s lawyer) on the phone and said that even they were astonished by Lyon’s lack of foresight and professionalism in forgetting one of Ben Arfa’s clauses and told reporters that he’d like to see who would risk their credibility in this affair
The funny thing is we still haven’t heard from Jean-Michel Aulas. As every millionaire, he must be on an island somewhere, tanning and sipping on some pina colada. It’ll certainly be an interesting read when we he gets back to Lyon and talks to reporters.