Chelsea have
accused Fiorentina of seeking to "extort" money from them and former
player Mohamed Salah.
The new Liverpool signing and the Blues have
been cleared of wrongdoing after the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed a
complaint brought by the Italian club.
Salah, who moved to Anfield from Roma, joined
Fiorentina on loan from Chelsea in January 2015 for the remainder of the
2014-15 season.
But Fiorentina alleged breach of contract
when the Egpyt winger instead moved to Roma on loan for the 2015-16 season in a
deal which later became permanent.
FIFA threw out the complaint in May 2016 and,
13 months on, CAS has come to the same conclusion.
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A CAS statement read: "CAS has dismissed
the appeal and confirmed the decision issued by the FIFA dispute resolution
chamber on May 26, 2016 (FIFA DRC) in which Fiorentina's claim for compensation
of Euros 32 million was rejected.
"The CAS panel found that the player did
not breach the employment agreement by returning to Chelsea FC after June 30, 2015
and that Chelsea FC did not induce the player to terminate the employment
agreement without just cause.
"Accordingly, it dismissed the appeal
and confirmed the FIFA DRC decision."
Chelsea fiercely criticised Fiorentina for
their conduct.
A spokesman for the Premier League champions
said: "Chelsea's position throughout this case was that Fiorentina had
acted in bad faith in bringing a claim which was totally unfounded.
"We are pleased that the CAS panel came
to the same conclusion, with Fiorentina's case rejected in full and costs
awarded to Chelsea and the player.
"We look forward to the full decision
being published so that everyone can see the lengths that Fiorentina were
prepared to go to in order to extort large sums of money from Chelsea and the
player."
Salah, who joined Chelsea from Basle in
January 2014, joined Liverpool for 39million euros (£34.3million) on June 22.
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