FIFA has rejected Leicester City's appeal to complete the signing of Sporting Lisbon midfielder Adrien Silva.
On deadline day, both Leicester and Sporting believed that a deal for the Portuguese international to move to the King Power Stadium had been completed, with all the necessary paperwork being submitted on time.
FIFA ruled that the clubs were 14 seconds late, which led to an immediate appeal from Leicester as they hoped to boost their squad with the signing of the 28-year-old for a fee in the region of £22m.
However, the East Midlands outfit will now be unable to push through the transfer until the start of 2018 after FIFA rejected their bid to make Silva a Leicester player.
A FIFA spokesperson said: "We can confirm the following decision of the Single Judge of the Players' Status Committee: the petition made by The Football Association for permission to request the International Transfer Certificate for the player of Adrien Silva and subsequently register the player for its affiliated club, Leicester City FC, is rejected."
Silva has spent recent weeks training on his own, both in the East Midlands and in Portugal.
Darren Plant
