Dekel Keinan has signed a two-year deal with Premier League new boys Blackpool – as we told you on July 12.
The deal was confirmed after the Israeli defender was awarded his UK work permit on appeal yesterday.
Keinan’s initial first application was rejected because he had only played in 11 of Israel’s 15 internationals (73.33 per cent) over the past two years, falling just short of the Department of Employment regulations that require a non-EU player to have represented his country in 75 per cent of games.
Ronen Katsav, Keinan’s agent, presented UK officials with documentation to show that the player had missed Israel matches due to suspension and injury, and the officials also accepted the premise that Keinan is almost certain to pass the 75 per cent threshold by playing in Israel’s Euro 2012 qualifiers in September.
