ISTANBUL (AP) — World Cup winner N’Golo Kanté's move to Fenerbahce is set to be finalized after Al-Ittihad finally agreed to let him go on Tuesday.
The deal had looked all but dead when the Turkish club blamed Al-Ittihad for making the transfer collapse earlier in the day.
Fenerbahce said the deal, which involved Moroccan striker Youssef En-Nesyri moving in the opposite direction, could not initially go through due to administrative errors by the Saudi Arabian club.
“Due to incorrect entry of the relevant TMS (Transfer Matching System) information by the opposing club, the procedures could not be completed within the transfer registration period, for reasons independent of our club,” Fenerbahce said, adding it paid “meticulous attention to every detail.”
The use of the FIFA TMS is compulsory for all international transfers.
“An extension was requested, the necessary discussions were held by our club with FIFA, and all steps were taken to resolve the process," Fenerbahce added. "Despite this, during the ongoing process, the opposing club failed to complete the procedures without providing any justification to us.”
But Al-Ittihad later posted a farewell message on X, saying it agreed “to sell the remaining period” of Kanté's contract.
The 34-year-old Kanté, who joined Al-Ittihad in 2023, recently returned to the France team and made his 65th appearance for Les Bleus in November in a 4-0 win against Ukraine.
Fenerbahce is chasing its first Turkish league title in 12 years. In the transfer window it also recruited another France international, midfielder Mattéo Guendouzi, who hopes to reclaim a place in the national squad ahead of the World Cup.
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FILE - France's N'golo Kante fights for the ball against Ukraine's Yehor Nazaryna during a World Cup 2026 group D qualifying soccer match between France and Ukraine in Paris, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, file)
LONDON (AP) — British police on Tuesday opened a criminal investigation into politician Peter Mandelson over alleged misconduct in public office related to his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The U.K. government says newly released Epstein files suggest Mandelson – a former Cabinet minister, ambassador and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party – may have shared market-sensitive information with the convicted sex offender a decade and a half ago.
London’s Metropolitan Police force said detectives had reviewed reports of misconduct and decided they met the threshold for a full investigation.
Commander Ella Marriott said the force “has now launched an investigation into a 72-year-old man, a former government minister, for misconduct in public office offenses.”
Misconduct in public office carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Opening an investigation does not mean Mandelson will be arrested, charged or convicted.
But his friendship with Epstein has now cost him his political career. Mandelson said Tuesday he was resigning from the House of Lords, Parliament's upper chamber, to which he was appointed for life in 2008.
The Speaker of the Lords, Michael Forsyth, said Mandelson had informed officials he will retire effective Wednesday.
The announcement came as the British government prepared legislation to eject Mandelson from the Lords and remove the noble title, Lord Mandelson, that came with his seat in the chamber. Mandelson will retain the title after he retires unless lawmakers pass legislation to strip it from him — something that has not been done for more than a century.
A trove of more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Justice Department has brought excruciating revelations about 72-year-old Mandelson, who served in senior government roles under previous Labour governments and was U.K. ambassador to Washington until Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired him in September over his ties to Epstein.
The newly released files contain emails from Mandelson to Epstein passing on nuggets of political information, some of which critics say may have broken the law.
Starmer told his Cabinet on Tuesday that he was “appalled” by the revelations in newly released Epstein files, and was concerned there are more details still to emerge.
Starmer spokesman Tom Wells said that the government had sent police its assessment that the Mandelson-Epstein documents contained “likely market-sensitive information" about the 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath that shouldn't have been shared outside of government.
Among the revelations in the files:
— In 2003-2004, bank documents suggest Epstein sent three payments totaling $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson or his partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva. Mandelson has said that he doesn't remember receiving the money and will investigate whether the documents are authentic. But he resigned from the governing Labour Party on Sunday, saying he didn’t want to cause the party “further embarrassment.”
— In 2008, Epstein avoided federal prosecution by pleading guilty to state charges in Florida of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Emails and text messages show that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein continued after the financier’s sentence.
— In 2009, Epstein sent da Silva 10,000 pounds (about $13,650 at today’s rates) to pay for an osteopathy course. Mandelson told The Times of London that “in retrospect, it was clearly a lapse in our collective judgment for Reinaldo to accept this offer.”
— Also in 2009, Mandelson, then business secretary in the U.K. government, appears to have told Epstein he would lobby other members of the government to reduce a tax on bankers’ bonuses.
— The same year, Mandelson sent Epstein an internal government report discussing ways the U.K. could raise money after the 2008 global financial crisis, including by selling off government assets. Mandelson wrote: “Interesting note that’s gone to the PM.”
— In May 2010, Mandelson messaged Epstein that “sources tell me 500 b euro bailout” is almost complete. The message was dated hours before day European governments announced a 500 billion euro deal to shore up the single currency.
Epstein died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019, while awaiting trial on U.S. federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of girls.
U.K. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that Mandelson's friendship with Epstein was “a betrayal on so many levels.”
“It is a betrayal of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein that he continued that association and that friendship for so long after his conviction,” Streeting told the BBC. “It is a betrayal of not just one but two prime ministers,” he said, referring to Gordon Brown, the U.K. leader between 2007 and 2010, and Starmer.
An email requesting comment on the documents was sent to Mandelson through the House of Lords.
FILE - President Donald Trump, left, gets a reaction from Britian's ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson, right, as they take questions from members of the media after announcing a trade deal between U.S. and U.K. in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, May 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, file)
FILE - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, talks with Britain's ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador's residence on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, file)
FILE - Britain's Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, speaks during a reception at the ambassador's residence on Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, File)
British Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson speaks during the rededication ceremony of the George Washington Statue in the National Gallery in London, Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
