Chelsea: Fiorentina Tried Extortion  (Sky Sports)

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Chelsea have been cleared of wrongdoing after CAS dismissed a complaint brought by Serie A side Fiorentina.

And Chelsea have hit out at the Italian club, claiming they sought to "extort" money from themselves and former player Salah.

The former Chelsea winger, who joined Liverpool in a £34.3m deal earlier this month, made a temporary switch to Fiorentina during the second half of the 2014-15 season.

Fiorentina alleged a breach of contract when the Egypt international moved to Roma on loan for the 2015-16 season, in a deal which later became permanent.

The complaint was rejected by FIFA in May 2016 and 13 months later the Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] has come to the same decision.

A CAS statement read: "CAS has dismissed the appeal and confirmed the decision issued by the FIFA dispute resolution chamber on May 26, 2016 (FIFA DRC) in which Fiorentina's claim for compensation of Euros 32 million was rejected.

"The CAS panel found that the player did not breach the employment agreement by returning to Chelsea FC after June 30, 2015 and that Chelsea FC did not induce the player to terminate the employment agreement without just cause.

"Accordingly, it dismissed the appeal and confirmed the FIFA DRC decision."

Chelsea have fiercely criticised Fiorentina for their conduct and a spokesman for the Premier League champions 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."