by roadrunner »
22 Jul 2011 12:17
IBRAHIMA SONKO has had to live through a £4.6million nightmare.
As crazy as it sounds, the defender is made for life but so frustrated.
Sonko has opened his heart and his pay packet to SunSport to reveal football's muddled world which has wrecked the last three years of his career and made him feel like a bloodsucker.
The Senegalese centre-half took home a whopping £19,545 every week under the terms of his contract with Stoke.
Yet he admits he has 'earned' barely a penny of it.
Mindboggling rules and red tape have left him warming the posh seats in grounds while becoming a millionaire. Sonko revealed:
He played just 697 minutes for Stoke since signing his deal on September 2, 2008. But he has just collected the last of three six-figure bonuses for City staying up each year.
In the 2009-10 season while on loan at Hull he picked up a staggering £1,631 per MINUTE on the pitch.
As one of seven loan players at Portsmouth last season, rules meant he would often sit in the stands while cash-strapped Pompey could not even fill the subs' bench.
Sonko, 30, said: "This has been a dreadful experience. I've taken the money because that's what is in the contract. But all I've wanted to do is go out and earn it.
"I've been caught in an infuriating web of rules and red tape which some managers are not even sure about.
"At Portsmouth I had to sit in the stands and watch my team lose because the rules mean I could not even be in the squad. The fans are sitting around me and God knows what they think? I'm sure that if many clubs don't even know the rules, then they don't.
"So to them I must have looked like some lazy footballer - picking up almost £20,000 a week but could not be bothered to play.
"The last three years has been a mess and it needs to be sorted. Far from being lazy I feel like I've been restricted from doing my work. What other business would have such complex rules that stop people moving around and getting the best out of themselves?"
Sonko signed a season-long loan from Stoke to Hull on transfer deadline day in September, 2009.
By January, boss Phil Brown had changed his mind on Sonko and told him he could go back to Stoke - only he wasn't allowed to.
The terms of the deal meant he had to stay put unless Stoke 'accepted' him back - but they didn't want him either.
Newcastle, then in the Championship, took an interest but City wanted a £500,000 'loan fee' to act as go-betweens and redirect him to St James'. The deal collapsed and Sonko had nowhere to go.
By now the January transfer window had shut and the outlook was bleak until Bristol City offered a lifeline with a loan offer.
Championship clubs can sign players on loan until the last Thursday in March and the Robins were adamant a deal could be done.
Sonko said: "I was well up for it. I drove to Sheffield because Bristol City were playing at Sheffield United.
"I was going to join in with training ahead of the game. I was half an hour away when my agent, who had always suspected the deal could not be done, rang to confirm that even though Bristol City could sign players on loan, the rules were getting in the way.
"For me to go anywhere I had to go from Hull back to Stoke first because that was my 'parent' club.
"Because the January window had shut I couldn't go from one Premiership club to another,
"In other words Hull and Stoke could not do the first part of the deal.
"A club wanted me but the bloody rules meant I couldn't go anywhere. It was incredible. My agent explained it to Hull's secretary because hardly anyone seems to know what can and can't happen. I was stuck. Wasn't playing and couldn't move. How frustrating is that?"
In July last year Sonko did leave Hull and entered the last year of his contract at Stoke. He was immediately sent out on another loan to Portsmouth, which had been in financial chaos.
Sonko explains: "I was one of seven players on loan because the club was struggling to sign players permanently. The problems started when we got injuries. There were gaps all over the team except in defence. The rules state you can only have five loan players in the squad on match day so I made way.
"It ended with me sitting in the stands while the manager did not have enough players to fill the bench!
"Portsmouth were paying me around £14,000 a week to do nothing. It sounds lovely but it wasn't.
"It just seems as if the rules are holding players back. We would often get different answers from different people at the Premier League and Football League.
"Clubs are confused, managers have no idea and players are stuck in the middle."