Re: Liverpool Thread(I Just Can't Get Enough!!)
I don't think your internet guy is correct with what he's typing on myspace or twitter about Zapata not getting a work permit.
For a start the big cut off is if a country is ranked 75th or lower in the Fifa rankings. Colombia is 54th at the moment and hasn't been lower than that in over 15 years. The next criteria is they should have played 75% of the countries competitive games in the last 2 years.
This is easy to examine for Colombia, as looking from 1-Jul-2011 to 1-Jul-2009 they have only played 4 competitive games, all of which were 2010 WC Qual matches, as follows:
05/09/2009 - v Ecuador - no
09/09/2009 - v Uruguay - no
10/10/2009 - v Chile - yes
14/10/2009 - v Paraguay - yes
So he played in 50% (the last two), on the face of it that wouldn't be enough games. However if the player is under 25 and the federation didn't have many matches in the prior 2 years appearance rates below 75% will be considered. Given Zapata only had to have played one more game, I'm pretty sure he would have got his work permit.
If you compare it with the Javier Hernandez situation (when he signed for Man Utd in April 2010): Hernandez had played in friendlies for Mexico (against the likes of Bolivia, NZ and North Korea) but he hadn't played any competitive (i.e. non-friendly) games for the national team (and Mexico had played over 10 games in the CONCACAF 2010 World Cup Quals), yet he was given a work permit in April 2010.
The bottom line is if Liverpool had been serious about wanting Zapata on 1st July 2011 they could have got him and would have been very likely to get a permit. Celtic have just been given a permit for a Kenyan player, Victor Wanyama, who fell below both the 75% and top 75 country criteria. If they had bidded on him on the 1st July and he somehow hadn't got a work permit the deal would have fallen through and his sale to Villareal would have happened anyway.
Not sure if anybody round by me will move away from FB as can't really see the point of starting all over again.
Bloody great timing from me to go back to work,will have to record it.