Richarlison’s Tottenham nightmare has deepened after Roberto De Zerbi excluded him from the Premier League squad and made clear the Brazilian has no future under him. Making matters worse, Spurs’ League Cup exit means there’s now no realistic route back to competitive action for Richarlison until the FA Cup begins in January, since the club has no European football this season either.
That total absence from match action could actually work in the player’s favour if he pursues a legal exit. Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte consulted sports lawyer Eduardo Carlezzo, who explained that FIFA’s Football Tribunal can grant players “just cause” termination when a club fails to register them for competition, though he stopped short of predicting how Richarlison’s specific case would go. Carlezzo noted his firm has previously represented players in comparable situations — frozen out, training only with reserve squads, and unable to feature anywhere — and that both FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport have ruled in the players’ favour in such cases, allowing them to walk away and sign elsewhere.
None of this guarantees Richarlison would win a similar fight, but it does give his representatives real precedent to lean on if Tottenham don’t budge. Previously, there was at least a theoretical chance he could feature in domestic cups even while frozen out of the league — but with the League Cup gone and the FA Cup not starting until the new year, that loophole has effectively closed for now. Even a change of heart from De Zerbi, or a managerial change at the club altogether, wouldn’t let Richarlison return to Premier League action before January, since his registration status is locked in until the window reopens.
For the moment, Richarlison seems to be pushing for an amicable exit rather than dragging Tottenham to FIFA. That would be the cleaner outcome for everyone, but past attempts to engineer a departure haven’t gone his way, and the club has given no signal it’s ready to let him go easily.
There’s an interesting wrinkle involving De Zerbi’s history, too: during his Marseille spell, he reportedly told Amir Murillo he’d be sold after a Champions League loss, a move said to have unsettled the dressing room — Murillo threatened to leave, and De Zerbi himself was sacked roughly ten days later. Richarlison’s circumstances are different, of course, and the outcome will hinge on the specifics of his contract. But with no competitive football on the table until January and genuine FIFA/CAS precedent behind him, the pressure on Tottenham to resolve this could keep building.
