Nice chief executive Julien Fournier has hit out at Fifa's failure to resolve the future of midfielder Yannick Djalo.
Executive says their right to appeal player ban is being ignored
Nice chief executive Julien Fournier has hit out at Fifa's failure to resolve the future of midfielder Yannick Djalo.
The 25-year-old signed from Sporting Lisbon in a €4.5million (£3.9million) deal on transfer deadline day, only for football's world governing body to veto the move a week later.
The organisation claimed the necessary paperwork was not filed on time but Nice appealed on September 8th - which is yet to be responded to - leaving the player and the club in limbo.
"We are very angry," Fournier said on the club's
official website. "This issue is the fault of Fifa, who have blocked it. They have not given us a chance to state our case."
Fournier went on to say that Fifa were violating the rights of the club and the player to defend themselves.
Violation
"Fifa should be the guarantor of democratic values in the game," he said. "In this case, it violates our most basic right, the right to defend ourselves.
"To date there has been no decision, we cannot defend ourselves and the player is unable to ply his trade as there is no other remedy available to us."
Fifa have said that the paperwork arrived four minutes after the transfer window closed, invalidating the deal, but Fournier rejects that argument.
"We are determined to use all available remedies in order to show that excessive formalities (a delay in the data entry of a document) can not prevent a football player from plying his trade.
"We are willing to be bound by the decisions that are made, but it is necessary that they are made."
