Michael Baird and Josh Mitchell were unveiled by Perth Glory back on May 4th yet their clearance has still not come through from their former club Universitatea Craiova, in Romania. The same applies to the Central Coast Mariners Josh Rose.
Universitatea do not by all accounts have a leg to stand on after failing to pay the players at the end of last season. They broke the contracts with the players making them free agents, to move clubs.
They do have to give them international clearance, but even so it should never have taken this long and FIFA should step in and demand it. They are currently preventing these players from earning a living; sure they are being paid but imagine going to work and not being allowed to work. It also would appear that the FFA is not jumping up and down as much as they could, and in fact should. With a salary cap in place and a limit on the number of players in each A League teams squad, you would think they would want these returning players out on the park making the A League the best it can be.
Dave Mitchell said that they Perth Glory had been told that clearance was likely to come through on the 20th of August almost four months after the players signed. This reflects poorly on those charged with running the A League and is damaging to the league as a whole.
Some cynics fear that the FFA do not want to rock the boat or it may harm their World Cup bid, if that is true it truly is a very sad state of affairs.
