Leicester ‘reluctantly accept’ FIFA decision on Adrien Silva registration

Leicester City have “reluctantly accepted” FIFA’s decision to stop the club from registering Adrien Silva until January.

The Foxes had hoped to sign the Portugal midfielder from Sporting Lisbon on deadline day, but FIFA said they missed the Transfer Matching System registration deadline by 14 seconds.



Leicester appealed against that decision, an appeal which was rejected, and the Premier League club planned to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

But FIFA would not agree to their expedited appeal and Silva will now have to wait until January 1 to be registered by the club – that would mean his first game most likely coming 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.”

Sky Sports reports there is one final avenue for Leicester to try, which would mean Silva pursuing the granting of “Provisional Measures” through CAS.

Silva would have to claim that it is unfair that he is not allowed to play for anyone for several months, and that his livelihood is being damaged as a result of the dispute between Leicester and FIFA – Sky Sports reports Silva will attempt this even though it has proven hard to win.