COUNTY V YORK (FA Trophy final, Wembley, tomorrow, KO 3pm)

Newport County were last night locked in a battle to have on-loan goalkeeper Karl Darlow available for their big day at Wembley, but the ultimate decision will come down to opponents York City.

The Argus can reveal that the Exiles endured a frantic day of negotiations having opted to seek legal advice, with FIFA, the Football Association and the Football Association of Wales all part of the ongoing row over international clearance.

The Argus has learned that FIFA sent a second document to the Football Association yesterday explaining that the Exiles could have done no more to register the player ahead of the deadline of 11.59pm on March 9, County sending the documents at 9.34pm.

County have always maintained they sent all the paperwork off correctly and FIFA’s letter, along with strong support from the FAW, led to the FA again addressing the issue with the FA Trophy committee at around 7pm last night.

In that meeting it was agreed that the decision not to allow Darlow to play could yet be overturned, but only if York City support the idea and provide written confirmation to the FA today, something the Exiles tried to arrange last night.

FAW assistant head of compliance (registrations) Tim Lane told the Argus: “Newport County’s argument has been the same throughout this process and by the timetable they’ve set out, we believe the player in question should be eligible to play.

“The TMS (transfer matching system) database indicates that the international clearance wasn’t obtained until the Monday morning, but FIFA have sent an email contradicting that.

“With FIFA agreeing on the timscale set out by Newport, we feel they have done everything they could, a message we are relaying to England.

“Obviously there is a sensitive timescale but we’ve offered Newport every assistance we could on the matter.”