Chelsea have accused Fiorentina of attempting to “extort” money from them over the transfer of former player Mohamed Salah.
The Liverpool winger and the Blues were cleared of any wrongdoing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Friday over a complaint brought by the Italian club.
Fiorentina had Salah on loan for the second half of the 2014-15 season but alleged there had been a breach of contract when the Egyptian winger subsequently joined Roma for the 2015-16 campaign, a deal which would subsequently become permanent.
Fifa rejected Fiorentina’s complaint in May 2016 and, 13 months later, CAS agreed that the Serie A side were not entitled to €32million in compensation.
Chelsea welcomed CAS’ decision but offered of a stinging rebuke of Fiorentina’s conduct.
A spokesman for the club said: “Chelsea’s position throughout this case was that Fiorentina had acted in bad faith in bringing a claim which was totally unfounded.
“We are pleased that the CAS panel came to the same conclusion, with Fiorentina's case rejected in full and costs awarded to Chelsea and the player.
“We look forward to the full decision being published so that everyone can see the lengths that Fiorentina were prepared to go to in order to extort large sums of money from Chelsea and the player.”
Salah, who joined Chelsea from Basel in January 2014, completed a £34.3m move to Liverpool on June 22.
