Chelsea given special permission for loan player after Blues caught out by rule change | OneFootball

Confusion all around.

We originally had Marc Guiu in our predicted lineup for this evening’s Carabao Cup tie between Chelsea and Lincoln City. Then we remembered he is cup tied, having played for Sunderland in the previous round during his loan spell of just a few weeks there.

Rule changes catches Chelsea out

Marc Guiu leads the line for Sunderland. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

Well as it turns out, we should have stuck with it.

According to the BBC’s Nizaar Kinsella, Chelsea were “unaware” of a rule change that means the former Barcelona man is eligible for the cup this season.

The freshly altered rule 6.4 says a player can play for two clubs in one if he has “appeared for his parent club in the competition prior to the closure of the summer transfer window and subsequently moved to a different club prior to the end of that transfer window.”

Sunderland aren’t the “parent club” in this case, but they are being treated as such by those making the rules in unique scenario where he was loaned and recalled after just a few weeks.

It’s not a great look for Chelsea that they didn’t figure this out already. They were “contacted” by the EFL to make them aware, Kinsella says.

Guiu misses tonight – but should be back to help Blues going forward

The good news is that Guiu will be able to play for us in future rounds, should we beat Lincoln. And he could be useful. With Liam Delap out until Christmas and Nicolas Jackson on loan at Bayern, there’s a huge amount of minutes for Joao Pedro to absorb, and the Brazilian already looks pretty worn out, barely a month into the season.

Guiu is nothing special, at least from what we’ve seen, but should be able to lead the line in a few cup games while Delap gets up to speed.