It appears that Steven Davis and Kyle Lafferty remain registered players of Rangers Football Club. The Scottish Football Association have revealed that they have not granted clearance for the moves that would take Davis and Lafferty to Southampton and FC Sion respectively.
Davis and Lafferty as well as Steven Naismith, Steven Whittaker and Jamie Ness have found new clubs since refusing to have their contracts transferred from Rangers FC to Charles Green’s “newco Rangers.” The players acted on the advice of the PFA Scotland to declare themselves free agents and seek new clubs.
All five have already started pre-season training with their new clubs but are awaiting their international transfer clearance (ITC) to be signed off before they will be able to debut. ITC is applied for through national associations, who then contact the other association who, in turn, contact the club the player is leaving.
The situations is muddled somewhat by the fact that Rangers FC plc has been liquidated in recent weeks and the newco Rangers were only voted into the SFL in recent days.
Charles Green has contested the actions of the players from the very beginning and was never likely to relent easily. He is demanding compensation for the departed players. In total, 11 have refused to join the newco.
Until the situation of whether compensation is owed can be settled, FIFA do have the power to award temporary clearance to the former Rangers players. However, football’s governing body have confirmed no such applications have been received.
For now, Lafferty and Davis remain registered to Rangers and were the season to start tomorrow, they wouldn’t be able to feature.
(Photo credit: _gee_ via Flickr)
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