FCA settles with Kewell for six figures

A legal stoush between Fiat Chrysler Automotive (FCA) and former Socceroo Harry Kewell has settled out of court with a payment to Kewell said to be worth six figures.

According to News Corp, the settlement, which was accepted by Kewell last month ends litigation ahead of a September 2016 date in the Federal Court.

Kewell sought legal advice after FCA ended a sponsorship contract worth $1 million a year, leaving the Harry Kewell Academy bereft of funds. FCA recently counterclaimed that Kewell had entered into an "unauthorised" sponsorship deal worth more than $3 milllion, negotiated with FCA management at the time. Since then, two former CEOs of FCA Australia – Clyde Campbell and Veronica Johns – have been implicated in a scandal FCA declares has cost the company $30 million. FCA has initiated legal action to recover the allegedly misappropriated funds through the courts.

In its counterclaim, FCA stated that Kewell had "procured or induced" corporate law breaches by Campbell and Johns who had allegedly entered into invalid contracts. Due to Kewell's close personal relationship with Campbell, FCA alleges, the Kewell would have been well aware that the contract with FCA was "uncommercial". Kewell denies this, but FCA cites a luxury trip in April 2014 – 12 months after Campbell's departure from FCA – as evidence that Kewell and Cambell enjoyed a relationship that went beyond the purely commercial. For the trip, Kewell was accompanied by his wife Sheree Murphy – known for her role in 'Neighbours' – and Campbell and his wife Simone.

Additionally, Kewell's contract with FCA allowed him eight return business-class airfares to the UK, up to $75,000 to cover annual school fees and $2000 rental assistance. FCA has claimed that an extension of Kewell's contract signed by Johns was backdated after Campbell had already left FCA. Kewell denies this, declaring that he had no knowledge of any act of malfeasance by Campbell or Johns.

In November 2015, Fairfax Media reported that Kewell had allegedly paid Campbell nearly $14,000 to re-negotiate the contract between Kewell and FCA. FCA claimed at the time that it was in possession of emails exchanged by Kewell and Campbell referring to these payments.

While FCA has offered no official statement following the settlement, it's expected to now seek redress against other brand ambassadors, including Jesinta Campbell, Shane Warne and Liz Hurley. Hurley has been named in a statement of claim provided by FCA for the Federal Court.

Picture of Harry Kewell courtesy of Liam Getreu/Wikimedia Commons