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Arsenal have been dealt a blow after one of their January loanees was incorrectly registered by his new club and is currently unable to play for them.
Young centre-back Omar Rekik was sent out to Swiss side Servette during the January transfer window in order to get more regular game time, having spent the first half of the campaign at Wigan Athletic.
But he is yet to make his debut for the club and may, in fact, never play for them after a huge administrative error.
According to Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten, Servette had until midnight on February 15 to resubmit their squad list for the rest of the season but forgot to remove four players either no longer at the club or not in their plans in order to free up space for new additions.
‘Servette did not send us anything at all,’ David Barras, a spokesperson for the Swiss Football League, confirmed to the newspaper.
Alongside Rekik, Takuma Nishimura, Bassirou Ndiaye and Dylan Bronn all arrived in the winter window but were not correctly registered.
Servette should have sent a relatively straightforward email to the SFL to remove the names of Chris Bedia (who joined Union Berlin), Boubacar Fofana (who joined Winterthur) and Ronny Rodelin (who is surplus to requirements).
A brief statement from Servette confirmed: ‘We are trying to resolve this administrative issue and we do not wish to react at the moment.’
They have been granted something of a reprieve over one player after loaning out Hussayn Touati, with loan players automatically deregistered from the squad, and Bronn is the player who was designated to take his spot.
But as it stands, the three others – Rekik, Nishimura and Ndiaye – are all blocked from playing for Servette.
The Swiss side will appeal to the league’s transfer committee to try and register the players after the deadline, though there is little optimism that they will be granted permission to do so.
There is a potential solution, however, with Servette still able to loan out players to countries where the transfer window is still open, such as Poland, Slovakia, China and others.
Servette would need to convince players to ‘sacrifice’ themselves but, as with the aforementioned loan of Touati, that would deregister them from the squad and open a fresh spot.
However, Arsenal’s Rekik would not be the first in line to be registered, with Nishimura – on loan from Yokohama F. Marinos – the player Servette have prioritised.
Rekik may be able to play in the Europa Conference League for Servette, who are competing against Ludogorets in the knockout round play-offs, but Arsenal may consider recalling him if he will not be receiving any game time.
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