Sébastien Larcier awarded 516,000 euros as Angers appeal court upholds unfair dismissal case | OneFootball

Angers appeal court has upheld the labour court's ruling, ordering Angers SCO to pay former sporting director Sébastien Larcier 516,000 euros. The judges recognised unfair dismissal and the validity of his player-valuation bonus clause.

Larcier replaced Olivier Pickeu in May 2020 and was sacked the following year. The two departures have proved costly, more than 2 million euros for Pickeu and over 500,000 euros for Larcier, according to Ouest-France.

His contract included a cut of transfer profits. He argued he arrived during the Covid crisis, had to handle contracts agreed before his tenure and was not given time to implement his sporting plan. He said his work generated 44 million euros in sales and sought a share of Rayan Aït-Nouri’s move to Wolverhampton, a loan in October 2020 with an automatic 22 million euros option. Aït-Nouri has since joined Manchester City for 50 million euros.

The court awarded 0.5% of the capital gains on 2020-21 sales, recorded at 14.1 million euros, equating to 70,840 euros. It also found that, as Larcier was dismissed shortly before the January 2022 window, deals completed then were the fruit of his work, adding 120,000 euros.

None of the club’s grievances against him were upheld. Angers had cited a lack of leadership, poor work quality, weak planning and budgetary shortcomings, while Larcier said he had received no warnings and even earned a performance bonus.

His lawyer, Samuel Chevret, welcomed the judgment and said the court noted that Larcier’s recruitment enabled sales of more than 14 million euros in 2020-21 and 30 million euros in 2021-22.

Source: L'Équipe