Nicky Shorey's Move From Aston Villa to Fulham: Probed By FIFA

It happened back in January 2007 when Argentina star Javier Mascherano moved to Liverpool after playing for West Ham United and Corinthians within the same season, and it has happened again.

Nicky Shorey has tested the rules of FIFA (world football's governing body) by moving to Fulham from Aston Villa, and playing for the London club in their Premier League match against Portsmouth.

What's wrong with that?

Well, Shorey has already played for Aston Villa this season, as well as starring in nine games on loan at Championship club Nottingham Forest.

A hole in the professional football system in England means a player can play for more than two clubs in a season if the move was an emergency loan, with the temporary transfer to Forest being categorised as an "emergency loan."

However, in Article 5 of the current FIFA rulebook, it states that a player can be registered for a maximum of three teams but only play for two.

The governing body is not happy at the loophole in either the English system or that Shorye's move should be classified as an emergency loan, and will therefore be investigating the Nicky Shorey case.

A FIFA spokesman said, "FIFA are concerned about the system of emergency loans in general and have approached the Football Association on various occasions in the past regarding this. FIFA will be contacting them again in order to obtain clarification with regard to [Nicky Shorey's move to Fulham].

"Generally speaking, and with regard to the application of the pertinent rule, ie. Article 5 Paragraph 3 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, the regulation should be applied as stated."

The above mentioned rule indicates that a player can be registered with a maximum of three clubs while representing only two of them per season, with the only exception being a transfer between clubs that have overlapping seasons.

A spokesman for the FA defended Shorey's transfer, "Emergency loans don't count when calculating the number of clubs a player has played for as he remains under contract to his parent club."

Quite frankly, the left-back's move to Nottingham Forest simply cannot be classed as an emergency loan.

The club already had eight defenders in their first-team and were simply looking for a boost in the quality of their defence.

It was never noted that the loan was an emergency; how could Forest get a player starting in the opening four games of Aston Villa's Premier League campaign on loan "as an emergency?"

Forest offered an attractive proposition to Aston Villa to lure Shorey to the club over a lengthy period of time, but it was not a quickly done deal as an "emergency" to get the player in ASAP.

FIFA have every right to investigate the transfer. It will be interesting to see what action, if any, they take to try and plug the gaping hole in a flawed system regarding the transfer of players.