Marseille to appeal to FIFA over Barthez transfer
First Published: Oct 31, 2003Marseille have decided to appeal to world football's ruling body FIFA in their bid to land France and Manchester United goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, the club said.
On Thursday FIFA turned down the French club's loan request on the grounds that the transfer window had now closed.
A Marseille spokesman said the club would "resort to appealing to FIFA's executive committee" in their bid to seal Barthez's move to the club.
Barthez has fallen out of favour at the English champions and is now third in the pecking order behind American Tim Howard and Northern Ireland's Roy Carroll.
However the France keeper has been told by national team manager Jacques Santini that he needs to get back into the swing of regular top flight football if he is to keep his place ahead of the 2004 European Championships in Portugal.
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