Chinese Super League club (CSL) Liaoning has appealed to FIFA for compensation fees from Bosnian club FK Slavija Sarajevo for the short-term deal with former Liaoning player Dai Lin, who is now headed to CSL club Shanghai Shenhua.

"We sent two letters to the Bosnian club in May and June and asked them to pay the club," said the club in a statement. "According to the FIFA rules, the club has to pay 150,000 euro for the training compensation as Dai trained and competed in Liaoning for five years (30,000 euro for each year).

"Without any reply from the club, we made an appeal to FIFA on June 20. FIFA responded to our complaint and has asked us to collect enough evidence before suing them."

A lawsuit against FK Slavija Sarajevo is a possibility. Earlier this week, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) was criticized for allowing the central-back to join Shanghai Shenhua for the inexpensive transfer fee of 500,000 yuan ($73,000) from the Bosnian club. The deal would mean a loss of millions in cash for Liaoning.

Dai, the Olympic team's central defender, was transfer listed with a value of 4.0 million yuan ($585,600) after deciding not to renew his contract at Liaoning earlier this year.

Shanghai failed in its attempt to woo Dai, who joined Sarajevo as a free player in May. But he never took part in any competition or daily training in two months with the overseas club and suddenly returned home and appeared at the Shenhua training camp on July 10.

The statement also said FIFA rules have made it clear Shanghai should also pay Liaoning.

"Dai's transfer has all the sides involved. It's not just a matter of the three clubs," said Sui Yan, deputy director of Liaoning. "It will also push CFA to perfect domestic transfer rules and motivate other clubs to increase the awareness as how to protect the club's interest."

CFA, which has to authorize all transfers of players, admitted Dai had exploited a "loophole" and promised to introduce rules to block any similar deals going through in the future.

But Sui still hopes the problem could be settled peacefully among the three clubs.

(China Daily July 23, 2009)