French Club Lorient is outraged with Lamine Kone's failed transfer over to Sunderland and is ready to meet the Federation Francaise de Football to file legal action against the Premier League.
Reportedly, Lorient's vice-president, Alex Hayes, heavily criticized the conduct of Sunderland after pulling out from the transfer deal. The Premier League had a bid accepted for the 27-year-old defender. The Ivory Coast international centre-back then travelled to Wearside to undergo medical and discuss personal terms. However, reports state that Kone failed to sign the deal with the Black Cats and went back to Lorient.
When Kone was expected to be the first signing for Sunderland, boss Sam Allardyce signed Jan Kirchoff from Bayern Munich on a £750,000 deal.
"It's quite outrageous," Hayes told French newspaper Le Télégramme as cited by The Guardian. "We gave Sunderland our consent last Tuesday, Lamine left the next day to have contract talks, but the player warned us there were problems in negotiating his contract."
Hayes then added how contemptible it was to know how Sunderland had pulled out Kone's deal while processing a negotiation with a Bayern player.
"Our defensive pillar was lost for the cup game against Tours and for the Rennes derby, for nothing," said Hayes.
To this Lorient's side reinstated that they are ready to explore legal options.
As per Daily Mail, the Premier League faces a potential legal action and UEFA reprisals after the collapse of Lamine Kone's £5million deal from Lorient. If the complaint is upheld, Sunderland will deal the punishment which could come as a fine, points deduction or even transfer embargo.
Following this threat from Lorient, new reports state that Sunderland is retracting their decision and is allegedly renewing their bid for Kone.
Kone is believed to be a crucial addition that can solve Sunderland's back four problems. However, the intention of the revival of Kone's contract for Black Cats has lost its pure credibility and is now purported to be made just to avoid possible sanctions.
