Sakiri: The story continues

13 June 2003

First, the official Fenerbahce web site claimed (albeit in Turkish) that Artim Sakiri will be signing for them within the next five days. Sakiri was rumoured to have been signed last week by Albion subject to work permit issues, but the player himself subsequently denied that, saying he was waiting until after Macedonia's game with Turkey, where he expected scouts to be watching him from Fenerbahce and others. Sakiri was being quoted as saying:

"I hope to sign for Fenerbahce in the next couple of days. There is a good offer from them and that is where I expect to be playing my football next season."

Albion, concerned at the reports, then countered them with a statement on their official web site saying that Sakiri did indeed sign a preliminary agreement last week to join them, subject to him leaving Sofia and getting a work permit, and expressing concern at the latest developments. The club has been contacting FIFA and "other clubs and national associations" to let their feelings be known on the subject.

Now, after receiving contact from Albion, Fenerbahce are saying on their official web site that they are definitely NOT signing Sakiri, and that they would like their "valuable press to be more investigative and sensitive when writing transfer articles".

Just to complicate matters still further, we took a look at the Government web site for work permit applications to see what would be involved in getting young Artim permission to play over here. And we found that one of the rules is that his country must be ranked at least 70th in the world by FIFA when averaged over the last two years. Helpfully, the site also lists the current rankings, based on the period from June 2001 to May 2003, and Macedonia occupy a glorious 88th place - one place below Wales, in fact. Perhaps the club are expecting Macedonia's defeat by Turkey to catapult them up 18 places in the rankings (they're updated on 25th June) - or for 18 other countries to slip down below them - or maybe they have a loophole in the regulations up their sleeves that isn't shown on the Government site, such as relying on the fact that he's Captained his National side to help them win an appeal if the application is turned down.

Anyway, if the player doesn't really want to come to us, is there anything we can do - and would there be any point bringing him here against his will?

It all seems to be dragging on far too long, whatever the reasons. Megson has said he wants his squad in place ready to start pre-season training at the beginning of July - just two weeks away. So far, eight players have left and McInnes is possibly on his way to Dundee United - and none have come in yet apart from a promising 15 year-old central defender, Rob Davies, from Wrexham.

Is it too early to start panicking?

Previous Stories:

  12 June 2003:  Share price diving

  08 June 2003:  Sakiri signing in doubt

  29 May 2003:  Peace cops for £1.3 million

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