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West Ham United could be impacted to the point of bankruptcy from the fallout of Lassana Diarra’s legal case on transfers, Karren Brady has warned.

Writing in The Sun (4 October), the Irons’ vice-chairman said that players being able to terminate their contracts on a whim could result in a complete collapse of the global transfer system.

Diarra’s case concerns him being unable to terminate his Lokomotiv Moscow contract despite not being paid by the club, but Brady argued that making widespread changes would lead to “chaos and anarchy”.

Brady said: “If players can simply break their contracts and move around the world, the entire system will collapse.

“Currently I can pay £80m to sign a player over a five-year contract and put that into my accounts to make it sustainable.

“But if that player can walk to Manchester City for free, and I have to write off £80m every time, we’d go bankrupt. So whatever we could have bought him for, we can’t afford to pay that.”

New FIFA transfer rules could be a deal-breaker for West Ham

The Hammers are a club who strive to become one of football’s true elite both in the Premier League and across Europe, but new rulings over player transfers could be catastrophic for the club’s stability.

As one of the league’s most monied clubs with the likes of Daniel Kretinsky on the board, the Irons spent over £130million on player transfers this summer in a massive overhaul of Julen Lopetegui’s squad.

Karren Brady has been a member on the West Ham United board since January 2010

A decent amount could well have been brought in, too, had Lucas Paqueta made a highly-anticipated move to Manchester City which, prior to the Brazilian’s FA betting charges, looked to be on the cards.

Paqueta’s form, in a side which failed to qualify for Europe, had seen fees of roughly £100m mooted – but under the potential new FIFA rules, the club could have been robbed of that watershed transfer sale.

Brady, and club executives across the world, will be desperate for a ‘Diarra Law’ not to be put in place, but for players who feel they can take a next step up from West Ham, they may welcome the sweeping changes which could be on the horizon.

In other West Ham news, Paul Merson has given his prediction for the Irons’ match against Ipswich Town on Saturday (5 October).

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