Meat On Wes’ Contractual Bones

Having spoken to the Scottish Football authorities, Blackpool Vital can confirm that it is highly likely that Wes Hoolahan will be a Blackpool player in the not so distant future for a fee of £75,000.

Basically Wes` contract dispute is a scenario that a couple of years ago, would have been dealt with by the ‘International Football League Board` – comprising of the home nations. This was the board that liaised between the home nations, and any transfers went through it, and it was one body, with one set of rules. However, Liam Miller`s transfer from Celtic to Manchester United – along with others – highlighte differences with the U 24 rule between the leagues that were in place, with the bigger club having the final say, and thus the board became redundant.

After that, international transfers are governed by “FIFA`s Regulations on the status and transfers of players” which allays fears of English versus Scottish law complxities. All clubs must adhere to their contractual guidelines, but if there are any disputes they must refer to their members FA. Livingston would report to the SFA and ‘Pool to the English FA – and this is what has happened.

If the dispute could not be resolved by the FA`s the matter would go to FIFA – whom would be the judge – which may yet happen.

Our contact in Scotland could only comment on open press but he did say that if the dispute is purely and only over late payments then ‘Livi` should – and if they deemed it a problem would have – contacted the SFA to register a complaint. The SFA would then have to contact the FA and Blackpool Football Club be notified. If the problem was said to be persistent (which nine out of ten alleged late loan payments would be), the SFA would have contacted the FA who in turn would contact BFC, and if BFC FAILED to comply, Wes would have certainly been recalled, regardless of the time of year.

Our source stated that on the evidence above, Livingston would not get the backing of the SFA, who would then issue the necessary International transfer certificate as required by FIFA’s laws, BFC and the FA.

All this of course is based on the Avondale clubs SOLE objection being late payments. If this is the case, our Scottish official and Vital would expect ratification of the transfer at an early stage, and Wes Hoolahan will don the tangerine shirt in The Championship next season.

We did ask the official if he believed that Livingston were just regretting the agreed price last year, and being awkward for more money, but unfortunately the response was one of “I couldn`t possible comment”.

However he was very aware of how well Wes had done at the Pool and even went as far as to say he understood how happy Wes is here and congratulated us on our promotion.