Leicester City have had their appeal over the botched registration of Adrien Silva rejected by FIFA.
The Foxes attempted to sign Silva from Sporting Lisbon on deadline day but missed the cut-off by 14 seconds.
The majority of the £22million deal had been agreed earlier in the window, but Leicester left it until the very last moment to start finalising the small print and, even with a specially requested two-hour extension, managed to overshoot the deadline, thus leaving FIFA with no choice but to reject the application.
With the help of the FA, the club then lodged an appeal in the hope that FIFA would grant Silva an International Transfer Certificate but that has, this morning, also been rejected.
The overall upshot is that, while Silva is technically a Leicester player, he won’t be allowed to play for them (or anybody else) until the the January transfer window opens and the Foxes can once again apply for approval.
Silva himself was given an emotional send-off by Sporting at the weekend, with fans thanking their departing skipper for his years of service during the half-time interval of their match against Porto.
He’s now got three months to find himself a new hobby or part-time job.
The Lidl by us are always advertising for casual staff. Just saying.