Reggie Cannon’s early exit from Portuguese club Boavista have cost the American defender a hefty fine.
Cannon is ordered to pay Boavista approximately $1.4 million for leaving the club unlawfully before the conclusion of his contract, FIFA announced Thursday, transcribed by O Jogo. The 26-year-old defender left the club in June 2023 due to reported unpaid wages, but a lengthy court case ruled in favor of Boavista.
Cannon has 45 days to pay Boavista, which includes a 5% interest, but his current club QPR will reportedly complete the compensation payment of $71,000. As part of the ruling, Boavista will also have to pay Cannon $85,226 in unpaid wages, plus 5% interest.
The former FC Dallas homegrown made 89 combined appearances for Boavista over three seasons, featuring mainly as a right back and centerback.
Cannon proceeded to make 21 appearances for QPR last season, logging 1,437 minutes of playing time. Despite a few knocks along the way, Cannon remains a defensive option for Marti Cifuentes’ squad again in the EFL Championship.
A U.S. men’s national team debutant in 2018, Cannon hasn’t featured for the USMNT since a 2-0 friendly loss to Japan in September 2022.
QPR opens its league campaign on Saturday against West Bromwich Albion.
This is disgusting they didn’t have the means to pay Cannon and was late I watched the interview he did on Youtube when he was saying he has a family to take care of and the late pay was an inconvenience. Wow I hope this gets dismissed, he didnt do anything wrong and I dont consider this a breach on contract.
Any lawyers here, please chime in.
I tuned in for the QPR highlights today in hopes of seeing Cannon, but he didn’t even make the subs bench. Don’t know if he’s inured or he’s being punished for this legal conundrum.
Woof. A guy bails on a team that’s literally not paying his salary, which means they broke his contract…but then a Portuguese court rules that because Cannon bailed after Boavista already breached the contract that he himself is somehow in breach of his own contract and owes Boavista $1.4 million. Mind, the court acknowledged Boavista’s culpability, because they’re forcing Boavista to pay Cannon.
That’s some seriously messed-up legal logic there. In the US – and most places – once somebody’s in breach, that nullifies the contract. (Which isn’t complicated…why should you have to hold up your end if they aren’t holding up theirs?) There’s sometimes clauses in contracts that allow the breaching party a certain amount of time to “cure” the breach before you’re allowed to terminate your agreement, but here’s the real rub: if you don’t walk and continue to perform your duties despite knowing of the breach, that can be construed as “waiver of breach”, meaning, you’re tacitly agreeing you’re okay with it.
Without knowing all the particulars, this ruling, on the face of it, does not speak well of the system of Portuguese law. And this is absolutely the sort of thing that makes Portugal in general and Boavista in particular a place to avoid if you’re an athlete. Who on Earth would go to Boavista knowing they’ve got a history of not paying their players, and then suing you when you try to leave?
I also was also curious if Boavista would likely be able to successfully collect, so I checked. Collecting it isn’t straightforward, because England left the EU and judgments from other EU nations are no longer automatically accepted in England. An English court would have to agree with this seemingly odd ruling, and even if they did, Cannon could still return to the US and the process would start all over again. So Boavista will have to win again in court not once but potentially twice and justify what appears to be a really wonky judgment, which again, on the face of it, seems unlikely.
It’s still a major headache for Cannon, and a serious Mickey Mouse play from Boavista. We don’t have the money to pay you on time, but we do have the money for legal action if you leave because we’re not paying you?
You gotta feel for the guy. And my guess would be this is the end of Americans playing for Boavista for a good long while.