Chelsea FC : Abramovich ally Granovskaia at High Court over Alrubie dispute
Former Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia is at London’s High Court today as she seeks to pause a civil claim against her by football agent Saif Alrubie.
Alrubie issued legal proceedings to the High Court last September against Granovskaia and Chelsea Football Club after he was found not guilty sending a threatening email to Abramovich’s close associate.
The case stems from the sale of footballer Kurt Zouma from Chelsea to West Ham United in 2021, on what was a four-year deal.
The 30-year-old is still on the books with the Stratford club but is currently out on loan with Saudi Pro League club Al-Orobah, who also boast Brad Young – the young Brit who moved to the Middle East from The New Saints for a record fee for a Cymru Premier Club player.
Agent Alrubie sent a WhatsApp message to the former director of Chelsea Granovskaia relating to the player and his salary before the pair exchanged messages about Zouma’s potential transfer. Granovskaia and Alrubie discussed the agent commission, according to court documents seen by City PM.
State of play
But in September last year, three years after the transfer of Zouma, Alrubie issued proceedings against both Granovskaia and Chelsea FC over the lack of a commission payment.
The claim made against Chelsea over compensation was discontinued last October, however, the claim against Granovskaia – who left the Stamford Bridge club following former owner Roman Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – remains.
The agent is seeking over £32m in damages for his alleged breach of contract.
The parties are at an application hearing at the High Court today as Granovskaia is asking the court to pause these proceedings, arguing that there is an arbitration agreement in place.
Granovskaia’s legal team is outlining to deputy judge David Quest KC that Alrubie, Granovskaia and the Blues were, at the time of the transfer, ‘participant” with the Football Association (FC), and as a result, were all bound by the FA rules, including ‘Rule K’.
As defined in the court documents by barrister Kendrah Potts of 4 New Square, ‘Rule K’ could operate as an agreement in writing for the purposes of the Arbitration Act.
Chelsea on end of ‘deliberate efforts’
The barrister stated that a “stay of the proceedings” in this case is “in the interests of justice” as arbitration would be dispositive of the issues, and parallel High Court proceedings “will waste time, money and court resources”.
She did query in her argument to the court as part of this application that it was “surprising that Alrubie has elected to proceed against Granovskaia alone”, alleging his “primary motivation” appears “to achieve some form of vindication or retribution because he blames Granovskaia for the criminal charge against him”.
The lawyer noted in the court document that Granovskaia did not request or push for the criminal charges, or “let alone even report the matter to the police”.
“Alrubie’s deliberate efforts to avoid the binding agreement to arbitrate the breach of contract claim in order to have a public forum to seek retribution against Chelsea FC and/or Granovskaia should not be entertained,” it will be argued.
In addition of asking the court to grant this application, Granovskaia’s legal team are also seeking for Alrubie to pay Granovskaia’s costs caused by these proceedings.
The parties are in court for one day, with a ruling impending.