Spanish federation's administrative bungle costs Sundowns dearly
Spain is supposed to be a leading footballing power but when it comes to administrative efficiency the country’s football federation must be near the bottom of the FIFA rankings.
Delays in issuing the International Transfer Certificate after Neymar’s move from Barcelona to Paris St Germain meant the Brazilian superstar's debut in Ligue 1 was delayed by a week.
Further down the food chain‚ a similar delay by the Spanish federation has cost Mamelodi Sundowns’ new signing Razak Brimah any chance of participating in this year's African Champions League.
Sundowns snapped up Ghana’s World Cup goalkeeper on a free transfer after his two year deal at Cordoba in Spain’s second division came to an end with an eye on him helping them in their bid to retain the top club prize on the continent.
But in order to register him with the Premier Soccer League‚ Sundowns needed the ITC from the Spanish federation.
“It is usually a simple five second job‚" explained Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane.
"You go into the (FIFA) system‚ you click on the player’s profile and you transfer him to his new federation‚ in this case SAFA (the South African Football Association).”
But the Spanish federation took so long to do the ITC – which should not be the case in any situation – that Sundowns were unable to register Brimah by the end of the week with the PSL.
While that is no an immediate problem in terms of his availability for Sundowns’ future domestic game‚ it was a crisis for the Brazilians because registration for Champions League top-ups closed last Friday.
But without a local registration‚ Sundowns were not able to register Brimah with the Confederation of African Football and so the 30-year-old Ghanaian cannot play in the Champions League this year‚ to the chagrin of the coach.
“It’s unbelievable that a country like Spain takes so long to issue an ITC‚” added Mosimane.
Instead Thela Ngobeni has been registered‚ which means he will stay at the club at least for the next six months after being on loan last season.
Ngobeni is now Sundowns’ third choice back-up for the Champions League because Wayne Sandilands has left for Orlando Pirates‚ but fourth in the PSL behind Denis Onyango‚ Kennedy Mweene and Brimah.
Sundowns were allowed to add three players to their Champions League squad for the last rounds of this year’s competition.
The other two are Oupa Manyisa and George Lebese‚ both high profile signings last week.
Sundowns play their next game in African club competition against Wydad Casablanca of Morocco in next month’s Champions League quarter-finals.
- TimesLIVE