Further Announcement.

n response to the statement by Chelsea Ltd, parent company of Chelsea Football Club, the club wishes to clarify the following points.

Chelsea Ltd's letter asking permission to approach Frank Arnesen sent to the club on the 21st May was copied to Frank Arnesen. By definition, Frank was therefore approached prior to the club having had any chance to refuse permission.

A further call was made to the club by Chelsea on the 23rd May when again permission to approach Frank was refused and this was confirmed in writing to them at the time. No other discussions were held with Chelsea until Friday 3rd June when, at the Premier League Chairman's meeting, the Chairman and Club Secretary met with the Chief Executive and Chairman of Chelsea. At that meeting our Chairman made clear his disappointment both at the approach and nature of the approach and made clear his intentions to seek substantial damages.

The rule which has been breached is rule U10 which cites 'no club shall directly or indirectly induce or intend to induce any employee of another club to terminate a contract of employment with that other club (whether or not by breach of that contract) or directly or indirectly approach any such employee with a view to offering employment without the consent of that other club'.

Clearly Chelsea have been upto no good knowing that Arnesen would be interested because, I expect, of the mega wages they could offer and so they copied the original letter to him as well as to Daniel Levy. Disgraceful. Spurs, with any luck, will report this matter to the FA on Monday and lets hope they have the balls to throw the book, the kitchen sink and everything else at them!

COYS!