David Edgar appears to be heading back to Burnley. And there's a decimal point to blame.
The Canadian defender's last-gasp loan to Swansea last month seemed like the ideal solution to an idling career with Burnley: Edgar was getting little playing time for his club and had enjoyed a successful loan spell with the Swans last year. Maybe this was the beginning of a new day for the 23-year-old Kitchener, Ont., native, a chance to establish himself with a new club and maybe even earn a permanent transfer somewhere where his services are valued.
But it's not to be. Despite the loan deal being finalized in time, and being given the OK by both the English and Welsh FAs, FIFA has refused to give the transfer international sanction. Edgar, who has been in limbo since the end of the transfer window on Janaury 31st, appears to be headed back to Turf Moor.
The problem? An errant decimal point in the paperwork.
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"We were told there was one decimal point out of place on Burnley's paperwork, a meaningless decimal point, and it has been extremely frustrating ever since trying to get Fifa to approve the loan deal," Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins said on the Welsh club's website.
The inflexibility of the decision is due to FIFA's transfer matching system, which is intended to speed up and clean up transfers. But Swansea says it just complicates things – and this is a perfect example.
"It used to be a fairly simple process between the two associations until Fifa came up with this new online system. It seems to have caused a lot of problems for a number of clubs."
Why do two clubs in the same country, in the same league, need international clearance for a transfer? Well, that's a very good question.
"As a football club we feel it's an injustice that when we sign a player from a British club that plays in the same domestic league as us, then only ourselves and Cardiff City have to go through the process of getting international clearance."
It will be a hard blow for Edgar, who earned his first senior cap against Greece last week, to have to return to a side that has used him so sparingly since he arrived from Newcastle in 2009. Edgar has appeared 12 times for the Clarets. By contrast, he made five appearances for Swansea, scoring one goal, in the two months he spent in Wales last season.
It's another harsh chapter in the story of a player who just can't seem to make the breakthrough Canadian fans have been expecting for so long.
"For a decimal point on the paperwork to stop a player playing is incredible," said Swans manager Brendan Rodgers.
David Edgar photo: courtesy of soccer_canada