Newport receive Fifa backing over 'keeper Karl Darlow

Newport County say they have received the backing of Fifa over their fight to play on-loan goalkeeper Karl Darlow against York City in the FA Trophy final at Wembley.

The Football Association say Darlow is ineligible as his international clearance was not processed in time.

Newport claim Darlow, 21, signed from Nottingham Forest before the 9 March international clearance deadline.

The Welsh club say a paperwork delay was not their fault.

The Exiles had been unable to win their case via the Football Association and its Welsh counterpart and approached football's world governing body Fifa.

FA have confirmed they received the player's registration but that it arrrived too late, while FIFA have confirmed they were contacted abouit Darlow's eligibility.

But FIFA, the sport's world governing body, has denied they have backed the Welsh club's bid to allow Darlow to take his place in the Newport County starting line-up.

"FIFA was indeed contacted with respect to the matter at stake," said the FIFA spokesperson.

"However, FIFA did not pass any decision, but referred The Football Association and The Football Association of Wales (who had both submitted separate correspondence) to the applicable regulations, in particular, Annexe 3 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players."

Fifa went on to state that every national association is responsible for compliance for their own regulations and that it is ther responsibility to ensure integrity of every competition within their control.

The FA have admitted they had received Darlow's registration but not in enough time to make him eligible for the cup final.

"The cut-off point for registering players for both The FA Trophy Semi-Final and Final was 12pm on March 9 but Karl Darlow's international clearance wasn't officially rubber-stamped by FIFA until March 12," said the FA spokesperson.

"Therefore, under competition rules, he's not eligible for The Final I'm afraid."

Darlow's is unlikely to take his place between the post in the Newport County side and he is likely to be replaced by Glyn Thompson.