Leicester raging after attempts to overturn Fifa ban on signing Adrien Silva axed following 14 second delay on paperwork
Foxes had planned to go to Court of Arbitration for Sport - but have reluctantly withdrawn appeal
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LEICESTER CITY are raging after their attempts to overturn Fifa’s controversial decision over Adrien Silva’s registration were strangled by red tape.
The Foxes have reluctantly dropped plans to take football’s governing body to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after Fifa guaranteed they would be wasting their time.
Silva could still take Fifa to CAS by launching a private action against them, with Leicester’s blessing.
However he is unlikely to get anywhere as he would need to prove Fifa has caused ‘irreperable damage,’ to his career which would be practically impossible to prove.
Leicester are livid after Fifa flatly refused to agree to fast-track Silva’s appeal – ensuring the midfielder’s case couldn’t be heard until the new year when Leicester can register him anyway!
The Foxes had appealed to football’s governing body to lift their ban on their £22million signing from Sporting Lisbon – after Fifa ruled they missed their registration deadline by 14 seconds.
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Leicester claim they have forensic proof their IT system sent the necessary documents before the deadline, but Fifa stubbornly refused to budge as they did not land in the FA’s electronic system until seconds after the extended timeline.
Silva suffered a further bureaucratic blow as he is also forbidden from making his Foxes debut against Huddersfield Town on January 1 – even though he will officially be a Leicester player by then!
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The Portugal midfielder can sign for Leicester on that day but players cannot be registered on a matchday - that means Silva’s first game is likely to be in the FA Cup third round the following weekend.
A Leicester statement read: "It was our intention to submit an application to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for expedited proceedings so that the matter could be resolved as quickly as possible.
"However, it has been made clear to us that Fifa will not support an expedited process, forcing the club to reluctantly accept the single-judge ruling of Fifa's Players' Status Committee without reasonable opportunity for independent arbitration that is timely enough to be effective.
"Our frustration at the denial of effective due process doubles our disappointment at the original outcome and while the club is now essentially powerless to continue to challenge the decision, we will continue to support Adrien in any personal appeal he wishes to undertake.
"We intend to register Adrien at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, he will remain under our care, training with the squad under the supervision of our coaching, medical and sport science staff."
Leicester will now focus on getting the 28-year-old match fit for his long-awaited debut in January.
Silva was signed from Sporting Lisbon to replace Danny Drinkwater who joined Chelsea on deadline night and has only recently been allowed to join in training with his new Leicester team-mates.
He was initially forced to train on his own with his brother Jeremy, a fitness coach, as talks went into overtime with FIFA to resolve the wrangle.
City will now hold a series of behind-closed-doors friendlies for Silva to make sure he is match fit for the day he is finally able to kick-off his Foxes career.
