Edgar involved in Fifa farce and could return from Swansea

Last updated : 16 February 2011 By Tony Scholes
David Edgar
Back in 2005, former Burnley midfielder Tony Grant was left unemployable for almost four months because of the stupid transfer window rules, and the latest is that David Edgar could be forced to return to Turf Moor because they are refusing to sanction the transfer.

Edgar cannot play for Swansea international clearance is received. That's not a problem; it is always the case when a player moves from one club to another in a different country. The FA were happy with the arrangement and so were the FAW, but Fifa have ruled it out because of a decimal point.

It's all down to Blatterdeal, one word for their new paperless Transfer Matching System (TMS) that tracks all international deals. It appears Burnley have placed a decimal point in the wrong place and that has not allowed the deal to go through.

Huw Jenkins, clearly unhappy with Fifa, said: "It's a disappointing situation for the player and the two club. Everyone, apart from Fifa, is happy that the loan transfer was satisfactorily completed before the deadline.

"We were told there was one decimal point out of place on Burnley's paperwork, a meaningless decimal point, and it has been extremely frustrating ever since to get Fifa to approve the loan deal.

"As a football club we feel it's an injustice that when we sign a player from a British club that plays in the same domestic league as us, then only ourselves and Cardiff City have to go through the process of getting international clearance.

"It used to be a fairly simple process between the two associations until Fifa came up with this new online system. It seems to have caused a lot of problems for a number of clubs.

"Despite the fact that both the Football League and FAW are happy to sanction the move, dealing with Fifa has been a nightmare. It's been very hard to get any answers from them and they are certainly not in any rush to get the matter resolved.

"David Edgar is now in his third week with us and he is still unable to participate in the squad. As a club we feel we can't prolong this much longer and perhaps David may have to go back to Burnley where are least he can play football."

Just to show what a farce this is, Swansea confirmed that they tried to rush it through on the Friday before their derby against Cardiff only to be told by Fifa that the person dealing with it already had his coat on and was going home dinner - and that he would be back on Tuesday.

This situation could almost be funny if it wasn't preventing a player from playing and it seems no matter what these idiots at Fifa do there is nothing anyone can do to stop them.