Rangers have been involved in enough court room battles to last a life time over the last 10 years and the last thing they would want is to have FIFA chapping at their door too.
That’s exactly what might be happening across the city with Celtic as Luis Palma’s move from Aris Salonika comes under the spotlight.
Rangers News discussed at the time of speculation how the winger had a complicated ownership structure and FIFA have been brought in to sort out a problem reported by his old club Vida in Honduras, as claimed by The Sun.
Rangers dodge FIFA dealings amid Luis Palma complaint
Palma was one of the first players linked before the transfer window even kicked off and suggested that a winger was going to be on the shopping list.
That Ryan Kent wasn’t replaced after leaving at the end of his contract and then Fashion Sakala sold made matters worse.
The only positive has been the emergence of Ross McCausland as a necessity due to injuries and a lack of depth.
Palma has done well for Celtic, he isn’t as good as Jota but he would have made a difference for us and might have helped to replace the numbers Sakala used to produce.
The player, on his announcement at Parkhead, spoke about the rumoured interest from Rangers:
“My agent told me there was contact with Rangers but when I knew of Celtic’s interest, I was only decided on one team and I wanted to come here.”
There was never any confirmed bid, in fact, Michael Beale claimed that there had never even been any interest from the club, despite being offered the player.
Rangers lack of a concrete offer maybe isn’t a bad thing with Vida president Luis Cruz now looking to FIFA for his side’s fair share of the deal:
“In total, they owe us around £50,000 from the original transfer and the sell-on.
“We have been left with no alternative but to take the matter to Fifa.
“We are happy that Luis has been a big success at Celtic, but for this club to survive, we need this money.
“To keep a club afloat, we have to do this. I had to delay payments and reduce salaries because of this.”
There is no implication that Celtic have done anything improper but they will still have to help with the investigation and clarify just how much was actually paid for the Honduras international.
With Million Manhoef and Emmanuel Dennis on Philippe Clement’s radar, giving Palma the swerve might pay off in the long run.
