South Africa force Pienaar to miss tie

Jan 8 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

EVERTON will be without Steven Pienaar for tonight’s Carling Cup semi-final after FIFA forced the release of the midfielder for African Cup of Nations duty.

Pienaar had been expected to join up with South Africa’s squad after Saturday’s FA Cup home defeat by Oldham Athletic.

Instead, the on-loan 25-year-old yesterday travelled to London with David Moyes intent on selecting the player for Everton’s first leg tie at Chelsea this evening.

But while the team travel to Stamford Bridge tonight, Pienaar will instead head for Heathrow and a flight bound for South Africa to join up with his national team’s training camp in Pretoria.

An Everton spokesman said: “Steven will be going to London today, but not to Stamford Bridge. He will be flying out from Heathrow.

“We have been contacted by FIFA and told he has to be released by us ahead of the Chelsea match.”

Earlier in the day, Moyes believed he was invoking FIFA’s 14-day ruling for the release of players for international duty.

The tournament begins on January 20 but as South Africa do not play their first game against Angola until January 23, the Goodison outfit believed they were entitled to extra time with the player.

However, FIFA yesterday insisted the regulations state clubs are compelled to release players 14 days before the start of the tournament.

A spokesperson for FIFA said yesterday: “It is very clear that the regulations refer to the opening match of the tournament.

“Clubs must release players 14 days before the opening of the competition, not the first match of the team concerned.”

Morio Sanyane, director of communications for the South African Football Association, said: “It’s unfortunate that this situation has happened. In the end it is the player who is caught up in the middle.

“I’m sure Steven Pienaar would like to play in an important game against Chelsea, but South Africa have a very important tournament to prepare for.

“It’s a very frustrating period for our coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.

Steven is the only player who has not arrived yet.

“It was a difficult decision to make, but at the end of the day, your country must come first.”

Moyes had said: “I’ve known about it for a week or two and it was always my plan to invoke 14-day rule if I wasn’t going to get co-operation.

“We believe that 14 days should apply to South Africa’s first match. I have spoken to the South Africa manager Carlos Alberto Parreira and they are clearly not pleased.

“We pay the players’ wages and believe we are within our rights to keep him here to play against Chelsea in the first leg.”

Moyes conceded his demands could cause friction with South Africa, and added: “They would have been starting training today probably – two sessions – but for me Steven Pienaar is important and I need to fight for Everton and I’m going to do everything I can to have my best players available.

“It’s not Steven Pienaar’s decision, it’s David Moyes’ decision – just in case anything goes towards him, it’s not him.”

Everton secretary David Harrison said: “We are extremely disappointed that a common sense attitude has not been shown, as has been the case with a number of other federations.

“Despite FIFA’s attempts to clarify the regulation, we do feel – as do a number of other European clubs – that there is a distinct grey area on this ruling and we are extremely disappointed that this has only been made clear at this late stage.”

Everton have already received special dispensation from Nigeria for Joseph Yobo and Yakubu to appear this evening before jetting off for their country’s pre-tournament training camp in La Manga.

Yobo is hopeful of shrugging off the knee problem that has kept him out of the last two games, while Tim Howard and Tim Cahill are also expected to return from injury.

However, Mikel Arteta serves the final game of his suspension this evening while Leon Osman (toe), Andy van der Meyde (shin) and Iain Turner (hip) are all out.