Friday, July 12, 2013

Ellis Recalled from Loan

Well that was a very quick loan.  Sporting announced today that defender Kevin Ellis had been recalled from his loan to Orlando for this weekend's game against Toronto.  Barely over 24 hours removed from the announcement of his loan to Orlando, Ellis is on a flight back to Kansas City ahead of tomorrow's game against Toronto FC. Last night in Orlando Ellis started at right back in Orlando's 2-1 win over Charleston last night.
With Mechack Jerome at the Gold Cup, that left KC's wingback depth as Josh Gardner and Kyle Miller.  With Ellis' quick recall, it's immediately led to speculation of an injury to Gardner, Chance Myers, or Seth Sinovic that would keep them out of action tomorrow against Toronto.  There's been no report of an injury but there seems to be little reason to recall Ellis unless there is.
The other thing this move does is bring up an interesting question regarding the loans, relationship with Orlando, and FIFA rules regarding loans. FIFA rules say that a player can not be registered to more than 3 teams in a year and can only play for two of those teams. KC is compliant with that rule as Ellis has only played for KC and Orlando. I've not seen an instance though where a player was recalled from a loan and was then re-loaned to the same club in a short period of time (I've seen it over the course of a few months, but not 24 hours later).  The rule where KC may not be compliant with FIFA rules is in Article 10 paragraph 2, where it says "the minimum loan period shall be the time between two registration periods." But here we get into the very gray areas of KC's deal with Orlando and FIFA rules. According to that rule, none of KC's loaned players should be allowed to play for KC until the window opened again.  Yet Dom Dwyer played for KC before the new transfer window opened back up.  And when Orlando's season ends all four loaned players are likely to return and some will see time. Of course that could be a similar situation to MLS teams picking up USL Pro players after their season ends and the transfer window is closed because those players are our of contract. 
Either way it appears to be murky water.

2 comments:

hartley said...

I have this feeling that Kevin and PV talked before he left and there was an understanding he would be picking up some frequent flyer miles over the next week or so.

Anonymous said...

i think vermes had said that he was going to send ellis right back after the game too. gonna wear the kid out on travel alone.