Monday 16 October 2017 19:43, UK
Leicester will once again be without Adrien Silva when they face West Brom on Monday Night Football.
The Portuguese midfielder has been unable to register for the club after a dispute with FIFA surrounding his £22m move from Sporting Lisbon on Deadline Day.
So what exactly went wrong? And what happens next? We take a look with help from Sky Sports News reporter Rob Dorsett.
On Deadline Day, as Chelsea stepped up their efforts to sign Danny Drinkwater, Leicester attempted to bring in Silva from Sporting Lisbon as a replacement. Chelsea confirmed the arrival of Drinkwater shortly after the deadline, but Leicester's brief statement on Silva said the transfer was still "subject to international clearance approval".
Leicester had agreed a £22m deal with Sporting and the player had completed a medical at their training ground, but FIFA claimed the Foxes had missed the Transfer Matching System registration deadline by 14 seconds. The decision left Silva in limbo, unable to even train at Leicester, with Sporting demanding payment for a deal they considered to be done.
Leicester have already gone to great lengths to dispute FIFA's decision, formulating an appeal as soon as the transfer was rejected. "Leicester are adamant they sent all the necessary paperwork via FIFA's secure intranet system before the midnight deadline," explains Dorsett.
"They secured an hour extension to the original 11pm deadline because they were still waiting for some essential documents to be sent over from Sporting Lisbon, and I've been told the club have employed forensic IT experts to extract proof from the club's IT systems to show that all the documents were uploaded by them before midnight."
FIFA rejected their appeal on October 4, however. "FIFA say the documents were downloaded onto their computers 14 seconds after the midnight deadline," says Dorsett. "As such, they cannot bend their rules to allow Silva's registration to proceed.
"The way it was explained to me was by comparing the system to when we send an email; the recipient does not receive that email the moment it was sent, there is an IT delay between sender and recipient. So it was with the Silva paperwork. Leicester believe there is ambiguity in the FIFA law regarding the deadline. They say they met the necessary criteria for registration to be accepted."
But FIFA have been unmoved.
Leicester's only remaining options are to take their protests to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, attempt to cancel the transfer - something Sporting say they would fight legally - or wait until the transfer window re-opens on January 1 to formally complete the deal.
"Leicester are still considering whether to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport," says Dorsett. "I understand they are confident that they would win an appeal, on the advice of lawyers, but the issue for the club and for the player is how long it may take for CAS to hear their case.
"The current feeling at the club is that an appeal wouldn't be heard before the New Year, when the transfer window will be open and they would be able to register Silva anyway. So it may be a fruitless process. If they are advised that the case can be fast-tracked, and that Silva may be freed up to play sooner than January, then they will appeal.
"However, Leicester officials feel wronged by this whole situation, and they don't like the fact that they are being criticised by some fans for a problem which they are adamant is not of their making.
"Also, were they to win a case at CAS, they would be entitled to pursue a case for compensation against FIFA, which could be significant since Leicester are now paying wages to a player they cannot use in any competitive matches for a three-month period.
"These are all issues that Leicester's bosses are considering before making a decision."
"By all accounts, he is devastated," says Dorsett. "Silva was very keen on a move to the Premier League, and to Leicester in particular, where he expected to get a lot of game time.
"He is now in a situation where he can't play for Leicester until January 1, but he isn't allowed to return to Sporting Lisbon either, because they have been adamant that the transfer is binding, and that he is now a Leicester player."
"When he was in limbo, awaiting the FIFA decision on his registration, he wasn't allowed to train with Leicester," says Dorsett. "To maintain what fitness levels he had, Silva was working with his brother and a personal instructor, mainly in Leicester, so that he would be ready to go if a favourable decision came back from football's governing body.
"Many people have asked me why Diego Costa was allowed to train with his new team, even though he is in a similar position to Silva, having moved to Atletico Madrid despite not being registered until January. The difference is there was a potential dispute between Sporting and Leicester about who owns the player, whereas Chelsea and Atletico both agreed on Costa's move.
"Most English transfers are made 'subject to international clearance' and the necessary registrations, so it was in Leicester's power to claim the Silva deal was dead, pay no money to Sporting, and send him back.
"However, Craig Shakespeare wants the player, admires him greatly, and needs a midfielder of his quality to replace Drinkwater. Leicester would've attempted to sign him again in January anyway. So having decided to accept he is their player, Leicester are now allowed to include him in first-team training, which they have been doing for two weeks.
"Silva has moved to England permanently and is starting to acclimatise. The only good news on this, from a Leicester perspective, is that by the time they can play Silva in January, he will have had plenty of time to get settled in to the club, know and train with his team-mates and manager Craig Shakespeare, and be fit and ready for action."
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