AND SO to Sheffield next week and the meeting of a selected panel of football's great and good to consider Tuncay's work permit appeal. I say appeal because his initial application will not meet the strict Department of Employment criteria and so is bound to be rejected on the grounds that he has not played the required 75% of Turkey internationals in the last two years.
But don't worry. He was injured for a while last year and so missed a string of games which saw him dip below the threshold. Boro will show that and the Turkish FA will verify it and the appeal should go through on the nod. Even if that line of attack were to fail - extremely unlikely unless the paperwork is processed by a civil servant who is Galatasaray until he dies - the decision should still be a formality as he ticks all the boxes as "a player of exceptional quality" and as a regular first choice selection for a nation ranked in FIFA's top 70.
Boro are right to have every confidence that the appeal will be a formality. Tuncay is a quality player, a Champions League regular and a fixture in a national team currently ranked 16th. His only absences have been through verifiable injuries. He has a note from his mam. It's a shoe-in.
Besides, Boro are getting good at presenting their case. The last time we were in this position was in January when Lee Dong Gook applied for a permit and was initally declined - a cruciate injury had ruled him out of South Korea's 2006 World Cup qualifiers and the finals in Germany and left him short of the 75% of appearance needed - but he won on appeal.
That the rules have been relaxed has helped. The previous regulations stipulated that clubs had to show there were no domestic alternatives for the vacancy and that players brought in had been among the top three earners at their old club and would be in the same position at the new club. Effectively that old system restricted imports to the very top players - and payers - and the relaxations have allowed much more movement and led to an influx of internationals from minor nations ranked 40 to 70 being paid peanuts in the lower divisions.
We are a long way from the days of young gun Igor Cvitanovic being refused a permit to join Boro in 1995 because he wasn't good enough and wasn't a top earner at Dinamo Zagreb. He went on to become the top all time scorer in the Croatian league. Today he would breeze through the application procedure without a murmur.
As with Tuncay. The initial rejection is nailed on - but so is the granting of the permit on appeal because there can be no question that he will satisfy the appeal panel. Their brief is to consider if the player "is of the highest calibre and able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level" and there can be little question of that. Just look at the YouTube footage and read that CV gentlemen.
The review board is made up of six people - one member each representing the Football League, Premier League and PFA and three Independents (split between former players and former managers or academics with a special knowledge), chaired by a civil servant.
According a Department of Employment junior minister statement to the House of Commons earlier this year a total of 712 appeals have been granted since the system was put in place in 1995. Last season there were 70 successful appeals, the second highest annual total so far.
There are no records in Hansard of how many appeals fail but few stories jump out of popular consciousness about angry clubs lashing the panel for a travesty of justice. The last high profile rejection was that of Liverpool's bid for Chilean Mark Gonzales in August 2005, turned down as his national side had slipped back to 72 in the rankings and he had not played the required 75% of games. The Anfield side farmed him out on loan in Spain for a year until the player - and Chile - improved.
As an aside, in googling for the DoE rules on this issue I stumbled on this little snippet of cultural and historic interest for Boro amateur archeologists. It is a report on Juninho's appeal against a rejection for a work permit for his second stint in 2000 that was part of a wider submission to a parliamentary employment committee looking at changing the regulations......
PANEL MEMBERS
Frank Clark - Independent expert; Mike Foster - English Premier League; Gordon Taylor -Professional Footballers Association; Dr Rogan Taylor -Independent expert; Mike Walker -Independent expert; John Young -Football Association.
Application by Middlesbrough Football Club for Oswaldo Giraldo Junior (Juninho)
Recommendation
The Panel considered written evidence submitted by the Club and took oral evidence from Bryan Robson, First Team Manager and Keith Lamb, Club Chief Executive. The written evidence consisted of the player's international record, his performance when he was previously a work permit player, the fact that he was the Carling Premier League player of the year in 1996-97 and medical reasons why the player had not been able to meet the international playing criteria.
The Panel were well acquainted with the player's ability from his previous spell as a work permit holder. He is, in their opinion, a player of superb skill and would be a tremendous asset to the domestic game. There were various reasons as to why he moved to Spain, particularly that in order to remain in the international squad he had been advised that a move abroad was essential. However, he suffered a serious injury, breaking his ankle, and subsequently was judged not fit enough to make the Brazilian World Cup squad.
Mr Robson explained that Juninho was a world class player and would bring charisma and flair to the English game and anyone who had seen him play before when he was at Middlesbrough would know he would make a very significant contribution to the English game. He said that the Club had signed the player on a contract until June 2000, not on loan, but with a get out clause should he for any reason not make the grade. If the Club exercised their right to keep him beyond June 2000 they would probably be paying a transfer fee in the region of £8 million.
The Panel were unanimous in their opinion that Juninho was clearly a player of the highest calibre, would make a significant contribution to the English game and that a work permit should be issued to Middlesbrough Football Club.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »