Australia NewsLove Cleared To Play At Last |
MELBOURNE Victory rookie Leandro Love has finally been cleared to play after a bureaucratic nightmare was at last completed.
The newly-signed Brazilian has been tied up in red tape since his arrival over the close season and earned his club a $5000 fine for fielding an ineligible player during the Pre-Season.Although his transfer was finalised weeks ago, Brazilian football authorities had been dragging their heels on completing their end of the paperwork.
Love started for Melbourne in the Pre-Season Cup – but it was later discovered he still hadn’t been registered properly in Australia and Victory was fined by the FFA.
It had looked like Love might even miss the start of the new A-League season this weekend as the wrangle continued.
But now Victory have confirmed the last piece of paperwork had come through and his registration could finally be complete by the end of today.
Victory football operations manager Gary Cole told Fox Sports: "The notification has come through. Bloody unbelievable. As long as you keep working hard, things eventually come through.
"Football Federation Australia told us the clearance was in the country and he just needed to be registered. That's the only thing and it should be done."
Now Victory coach Ernie Merrick can decide whether Love will get a start against Wellington Phoenix is the season opener.
But he warned Love was lacking match fitness after an enforced pre-season on the sidelines.
"The problem is he’s not battle-hardened with us," Merrick told Fox Sports. "He's hardly had a run in the pre-season and we wanted to give him several runs.
"But Archie and Dan are doing well, Carlos is picking up, Patafta is picking up and Caceres looked good.”
He added: "I reckon competition for spots is very healthy, and I think I'll leave it to the last minute to make a decision on Leandro and the final squad.
"I've got the headache of having a good squad of players and who's going to play and who's playing well to hold their places.
"It's a good problem to have. I enjoy this problem and I think the bench will be very strong as well."
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