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By Mike Collett
LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - FIFA ordered Romanian striker Adrian Mutu to pay Chelsea 17.17 million euros ($25.60 million) in damages on Thursday after the Premier League club terminated his contract in October 2004 for testing positive for cocaine.
In a statement, world soccer's ruling body said the decision had been taken by FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) but the player did have the right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
FIFA said: "The claim for compensation of Chelsea Football Club, regarding the breach of a contract which was signed between the two parties on 12 August 2003, has been partially accepted.
"The player Adrian Mutu will have to pay the amount of 17,173,990 euros to Chelsea Football Club."
In a statement on its website (www.chelseafc.com) the London club said: "Chelsea is delighted with the DRC's decision.
"This is an important decision for football. Not only did the DRC make us a very significant monetary award, the decision also recognised the damaging effect incidents involving drugs has on football and the responsibilities we all have in this area."
Since leaving Chelsea, the 29-year-old Mutu has rebuilt his career, first at Juventus, who he signed for in 2005 despite serving a seven-month ban, and since 2006 at Fiorentina. He also played for Romania in the recent Euro 2008 championship, scoring their only goal of the tournament in a 1-1 draw against world champions Italy.
Thursday's judgment reflected the valuation Chelsea put on the player after he joined them from Parma in 2003.
Speaking in June, after FIFA said they had reached a verdict on the case but did not release it, Chelsea spokesman Simon Greenberg said: "We never asked for a sum. The only thing we ever said publicly was how much in our accounts Mutu was worth. When Mutu left, obviously he had a value in our account.
"That value was 13 million pounds ($25.28 million) but when we made our case to FIFA we did not ask for a specific amount."
The Court of Arbitration for Sport backed Chelsea's bid to receive compensation last year and confirmed that FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber had jurisdiction to issue a financial award.
