Celtic won’t be forced to release Patrick Roberts for England’s u-20 World Cup campaign in South Korea.
England’s opening group match is against Argentina on Saturday May 20 which would rule Roberts out of the SPFL trophy day against Hearts the following day and also the Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen on May 27.
Most of the major European leagues will still be playing when the competition kicks off with clubs not obliged to release players to take part.
According to a report in The Sun a FIFA spokesman said: “It is not compulsory to release players outside an international window or outside the final competitions included in the international match calendar.
“As the FIFA U-20 World Cup is not included in the international match calendar there is no compulsory release of players.”
Roberts will now be at the centre of a complex four way debate that will involve the FA, Manchester City and Celtic.
The competition is arranged for the countries that reached the later stages of the 2016 u-19 championships in each confederation.
England qualified as finalists after reaching the semi-final stage of the European Championships where they lost out to Italy who lost the final 4-0 to France.