Marcelo Bielsa under the Losc tracksuit -

FRANCOIS LO PRESTI / AFP

  • The coach will speak this Friday by videoconference from Leeds in the dispute between him and Losc.

  • Dismissed from the northern club in November 2017, he claims 18.6 million euros in compensation.

  • The dispute is based on the nature of a pre-contract which, according to Bielsa, would allow him to receive compensation even in the event of dismissal for serious misconduct.

    What the Losc refutes.

Marcelo Bielsa is a man who never gives up.

More than three years after his dismissal from Losc, the Argentine coach still wants to settle accounts with the northern club.

The current Leeds coach, who admits having had the worst experience of his career in Lille, wants to win on the legal ground against his ex-employer.

This Friday afternoon, Bielsa will speak from Leeds at the hearing of the Lille industrial tribunal devoted to this dispute.

After having hesitated to travel to the North to give his version of the facts, he finally stayed in England, due to the health situation.

"El Loco" will speak twenty minutes just after the plea of ​​his lawyer and before that of the lawyer of Losc.

Dismissed for serious misconduct in November 2017, the Argentine coach is claiming 18.6 million euros gross from his former club for dismissal compensation and damage suffered in terms of image and notoriety.

Never seen in France where the layoffs of coaches are most often settled out of court.

A pre-contract that offered a golden parachute in the event of early termination

But the coach is determined to go to the end of his legal fight.

In February 2018, he even seized the Lille commercial court for the northern club to be placed in receivership.

He was then sentenced to a fine of 300,000 euros for abusive procedure.

Before the industrial tribunal, Bielsa, who in Lille received 560,000 euros gross per month to be distributed with all of its staff, hopes to have more success.

To succeed, the coach is based on a pre-contract signed on February 14, 2017, three months before his official presentation, between the coach and Victory Soccer, the Losc holding company and owned by Gérard Lopez, club boss. at the time.

With advantageous clauses in the event of early termination for any reason and even if a serious fault was held against him.

Le Losc believes that the only valid contract is the one filed with the LFP

But this contract has not been officially filed with the Professional Football League.

For Losc, the only valid contract, which does not include the famous advantageous clause in the event of departure, is the one signed between the two parties on July 1, 2017 and filed a few days later before the LFP.

"The contract signed on July 1 and approved by the League is the only employment contract that exists in this case" recalled Me Bertrand Wambeke, lawyer for Losc, in March 2018. For its part, the defense of Bielsa believes that the pre-contract is equivalent to an employment contract and is therefore fully valid.

It remains to be seen what legal nature will give the industrial tribunal to this pre-contract.

To form an opinion, the judges will no doubt attend a washing of dirty laundry in public.

With pro or anti-Bielsa testimonies which should stand out at the hearing as well as his conflicting relationship with Luis Campos at the origin of his departure.

Whatever happens, no decision will be made until, at best, June.

In view of the sums at stake, the soap opera is not about to end more than three years after the departure of Bielsa from Losc.

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