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| Hearts, Etoile Yet To Seal Taylor Deal |
1/6/2007 |
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1/5/2007)
Charles Taylor
Accra Hearts Oak’s “prodigal son,” Charles Taylor, will still not be registered until a request for a contract extension from Tunisian side Etoile du Sahel is sealed.
Unless something dramatic happens today, the player will not be in action in his team’s epic return clash against rivals Kumasi Asante Kotoko at the Robert Mensah Sports Stadium in Cape Coast on Sunday.
Hearts officials last Wednesday had a verbal agreement with the North African club but are yet to put pen to paper to make the player, who has been in the country for the past seven months, eligible to play.
But the “premier” club is confident to seal the deal with Etoile to register the player before the end of the second registration period.
Taylor and his long-time striking partner, Ishmael Addo, were to be registered last September but that was turned down by the Ghana Football Association (GFA).
The FA wanted sufficient proof from Hearts whether the contract of the two players who were instrumental in the team’s 2000 Champions League feat had expired.
Hearts contracted Taylor last August from Etoile for six months without any financial commitment on the grounds that the Ghanaian team will provide the necessary platform for the player to re-launch his career.
Hearts invoked article 11 under the player registration rules to ensure that the boys were registered but the FA, feeling uneasy about introducing a “very dangerous precedent” into the One Touch Premier League, halted the move.
The aftermath of the inability of the FA to register the players was stormy, degenerating into what has been known as the Otukwei versus FA legal saga.
However, Hearts sources say while Taylor’s registration hangs in a balance, Ishmael Addo will be registered “almost immediately” and could start on Sunday.
Story by Daniel Kenu
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