Forfar Farmington boss confirms player signed in December now unable to play due to mix-up

Forfar Farmington say club “did their job” but SFA mix-up stops new signing Leontia McVarnock from taking part in end of campaign.

Forfar starlet London Pollard has joined Celtic FC, the club have confirmed.

Forfar Farmington boss Kevin McGreskin has confirmed new signing Leontia McVarnock will be unable to play for the club this season after FIFA rejected their request for special dispensation on the transfer – despite the manager’s claims that the transfer mix-up was the fault of the Scottish Football Association (SFA).

The transfer, which was scheduled to take place almost six weeks ago, has hit numerous speed bumps after claims an “oversight” at the SFA had meant the paperwork for the move had not been completed by the transfer deadline, leaving McVarnock in limbo for six weeks.

The club applied for special dispensation from FIFA in the wake of the error, but that has now been rejected.

The news is part of a double blow for McGreskin, with the Forfar boss confirming young starlet London Pallard has joined Celtic this week following an approach from the Glasgow club. The teenager could line up against her former side this weekend.

The ex-Dundee United assistant boss was visibly aggrieved after he confirmed the FIFA decision following a six-week transfer saga.

"You can only apply for special dispensation with FIFA if everybody's done their jobs correctly,” said McGreskin. “So if the player does their job, we've done our job and the SFA do their job. So I don't understand how it makes sense because if the SFA have done their job - we wouldn't be asking for special dispensation.

"As soon as a European Super League is announced, FIFA jump up to say they are guardians of the game, but when an amateur football player from Northern Ireland wants to play football in Scotland … well, that's quite bizarre.

"We rely on the SFA registering the players and the TMS transfer matching system and then putting that into the system. Unfortunately, that's not happened. We've all made mistakes in life but we are feeling pretty aggrieved about this one because it's affecting us. That's the long and short of it. They had the details for the player and whoever was responsible for doing that … they didn't.

"They had the details from December, which we followed up, it had to be put in before the transfer deadline due to her needing international clearance. That should have been done by 1st February. If it had been done by then, we'd have had her but for some reason there was an oversight and all the other players that got registered quite fine in our league were okay - but our one wasn't and that's it.”

The manager also confirmed that 16-year-old Pollard has this week departed the club, adding: "We’ve lost London to Celtic,” McGreskin added. “They made an approach and I 100 per cent support the fact she is going to go and test herself. She’s a great girl, great potential and now she can test herself amongst some high quality players.”

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