Ljubljana remain willing to negotiate in Köln transfer-ban dispute
peaking to Germany's main sporting tabloid, the Vice President of NK Olimpija Ljubljana has indicated that his club remains willing to talk to 1. FC Köln in order to negotiate a two-party solution to the dispute that led to the German club's transfer ban verdict.
FC Köln's appeal to the the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over the recently imposed transfer ban could still lead to a deferral of the initial verdict, enabling Germany's cathedral city side to conduct transfer business over the summer whilst a new ruling takes four to six months. Meanwhile, however, the Vice President of Slovene club NK Olimpija Ljubljana has told Germany's main sporting tabloid that he remains open to settling the mater out-of-court.
The dispute over the purported fair play violation that supposedly convinced 17-year-old Jaka Cuber Potocnik to break his contract, as is the case with many such cases, can still be settled with a monetary payment. The Slovenian club hoped to obtain €1.5 million in putative damages. The FIFA transfer ban verdict ordered Köln to hand over only €54,000 to the plaintiffs. Previous negotiations between the two sides failed when, it has been confirmed, Köln refused to meet Ljubljana's previous demands.
The Vice President of the Slovenian club is actually a Munich-based lawyer, Christian Dollinger. In interviewers with the Kölner Stadt Anzeige, Dollinger has insisted that his side made "not unreasonable" offers to settle the conflict out-of-court. Köln managing director Christian Keller obviously condemned Dollinger in the strongest possible terms in the German press after the ruling was announced. Reached for comment by Germany's Sport Bild, Dollinger signaled that he remained willing to talk.
"Mr. Keller's statements were naturally not well received here," Dollinger told the tabloid, "but we are not petulant children. When it comes to my personally, I'm always willing to talk. Even despite this verdict. and with me you can always talk. Even after this verdict."
Dollinger conceded that he himself wasn't entirely sure if a two-party agreement could overrule the current court procedures, but it has been the case in the past that out-of-court agreements. The most famous example saw Chelsea FC and RC Lens work out their transfer dispute during the CAS appeal process in 2009.