Modern football guarantees that silly season is always on, 12 months out of 12.

Former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu was sacked in 2004 after failing a drug test for cocaine. After a four year delay (in claims, counter-claims, appeals, etc), Fifa’s Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) awarded Chelsea a hefty compensation.

Official statement from Chelsea FC:

“Chelsea can confirm that it has received the decision from Fifa’s Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) on the claim made against Adrian Mutu.

Chelsea is delighted with the DRC’s decision to award the club £13.68 million in compensation.

This is an important decision for football. Not only did the DRC make us a very significant monetary award, the decision also recognised the damaging effect incidents involving drugs has on football and the responsibilities we all have in this area.”

Chelsea will be thrilled and Mutu will feel screwed over (it’s debatable whether he has the finances to pay the compensation), but the more interesting question is this – why is one part of Fifa working against the other?

This is the same organisation whose president is a staunch opponent of the English Premier League and club football in general – I would have expected that while Fifa would be interested in making a statement, that statement would be directly related to Mutu (and at most, his eligibility to play for Romania).

Awarding £13.68m to Chelsea (who could have kept Mutu onside and helped him through his drug problems instead of discarding him like radioactive waste) goes against Fifa’s bias against club football AND goes against what Blatter has been saying about players being treated like cattle.

Don’t get me wrong – I have no qualms against Chelsea receiving the money – I’m just concerned at the double standards at display by Fifa. They could have easily chosen to punish Mutu in a different, more effective way and not reward Chelsea for dismissing him with all the ceremony a ’slave’ would deserve.

Comments welcome – again, this is a point against Fifa, not against Chelsea.