NEWPORT County boss Jimmy Dack has blasted FIFA for their decision not to sanction a loan for Cardiff City striker Rhys Healey.

The Exiles were rebuffed by football’s governing body who wouldn’t sanction a move for the youngster, who had been on loan at League One Colchester United.

And in waiting until the final seconds to try and force through the deal for Healey, County also missed out on their “plan B,” believed to be Peterborough striker Kyle Vassell, who instead switched to strugglers Oxford United.

“Regarding Rhys Healey, he was training with us from the week before and everything was agreed between the two clubs. They (Cardiff) made it clear to us that his loan (to Colchester) had been a youth loan and so we didn’t anticipate any problems,” Dack explained.

“We were happy to run with that and then it got to Monday and Tuesday and were no closer to having the deal done, so I started to get a bit worried.

“I had a plan B simmering on the Monday and agreed a deal with a League One club for a striker. I was balancing the balls a little bit, but I was swaying towards Rhys because he is a Cardiff based player.

“That’s advantageous aside from his goalscoring record, because when you bring in a player from outside the area, it becomes more expensive in terms of putting them in hotels and stuff. So we were tending to go with Rhys who has a good goal record in League One and he wanted to come and play for us.

“We were getting a bit panicky though and decided to move for plan B (on deadline day) but when we did, we were informed another League Two club had come back with an offer that was a substantial amount of money more than we’d offered and we couldn’t compete with it.

“But my hope is that the outcome will be pulling our squad together a little bit. Sometimes it is better to be running with a smaller squad, it makes you a little bit closer and tighter as a group.

“We wanted another striker, but we fully trust what we’ve got out there on the pitch. We’ve still got four strikers, it would’ve been nice to have five, but we take it from there.”

Dack can’t understand the decision-making process.

“I’m not understanding of FIFA's stance on it. I don’t get how a football organisation can stop a player from playing football, which to me is unbelievable. It’s a football business and they are stopping someone plying their trade,” he said.

“There is a lot I could say but I don’t want to say too much, but a lot of people worked hard to get the deal done, including at the English and Welsh Football Associations.

“But there is a problem there and I personally feel Welsh club suffer a little bit more than the rest.

“I had to tell the lad he’s basically done for the season, Rhys can’t even go back and play for Cardiff. In my opinion, FIFA need to seriously look at that.

“He’s desperate to play and he can’t, it just doesn’t make sense.

“It is FIFA who we are talking about, the English and Welsh FAs worked really hard to get this down the line.”