February 22 – German club Schalke are reported to have officially appealed against Didier Drogba’s inclusion in the Galatasaray team when the clubs drew 1-1 in the Champions League this week.
Drogba made his European debut for the Turkish club on Wednesday after joining them on an 18-month deal from Shanghai Shenhua.
The former Chelsea forward, who scored the decisive penalty in last season’s Champions League-winning shootout, was granted an eleventh-hour departure for Galatasaray but his former employers dispute the transfer.
Schalke club manager Horst Heldt confirmed an earlier statement on Twitter that UEFA had been requested to check whether Drogba, who set up his team’s goal in the round of 16 first leg, was eligible to play.
“It would surely be negligent not to get the issue verified,” Heldt said. Schalke pointed to the February 1 deadline, timed to coincide with the end of the January transfer window, for registering players for the knockout phases of European competition.
UEFA apparently only confirmed on February 5 that Drogba would be eligible but that it followed provisional approval from FIFA granted in the previous week.
Shenhua have accused Drogba of breach of contract but the 34-year Ivory Coast striker claims the club was not paying his wages. After Drogba moved to Turkey, the Chinese club said they were “deeply shocked” while Drogba called the move “an offer that I could not turn down”.
For their part, Galatasaray insist that Drogba’s registration has been fully approved, with a temporary professional player certificate granted by the Turkish Football Federation on February 12.
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