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Ben Arfa Lawyer Threatens Fight Over ‘Spreading Of False Information’

Hatem Ben Arfa Lawyer has gone onto French TV on Sunday night to defend his client against ‘the spreading of false information’.

Appearing on BeIN Sport, Hatem’s lawyer has said that they will not stand back in the face of ‘what the manager’s entourage have spread about him’.

Get French Football News have reported on tonight’s interview and laid it out as follows;

“Hatem has two possibilities – either he utilises Article 17 which is a FIFA regulation allowing after three years without an alteration, for that contract to be terminated. Hatem can do that this year.

“Contrary to what his manager (Alan Pardew) says, Hatem has only one year remaining.

“The other possibility is that he could also sort out the situation with the club , but what mustn’t happen is that Hatem is destabilised and it’s made to look like it’s him who is trying to leave Newcastle.

“There’s been no major incident which justifies what the manager’s entourage have spread about him. Nothing. As for all the things that hurt Hatem’s image, relative to the club, the fans or himself, we will fight because we can’t allow the spreading of false information.”

What does look clear is that any claims of Ben Arfa and Pardew making up are well wide of the mark.

Interestingly, the part about buying out his contract is [intlink id=”38321″ type=”post”]what Yohan Cabaye was allegedly contemplating doing[/intlink] before the move to PSG was eventually agreed. Article 17 is otherwise known as the ‘Webster Ruling’, named after the player who won a landmark case as he was desperate to leave Hearts and the club wouldn’t sell him.

If Ben Arfa’s case does come under that ruling then he could potentially leave for the equivalent of a year’s wages which is likely to be around the £2.5m-£3m mark.