Everton have pleaded innocent over the international row between Marouane Fellaini and Dick Advocaat that could deprive them of the £15m midfielder against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
The Royal Belgian Football Association (KBVB) is threatening to have Fellaini banned from the game at Goodison Park after he withdrew from tomorrow's World Cup qualifier against Estonia to have a wisdom tooth removed. Advocaat, the new Belgium coach, is alleged to have agreed to release Fellaini after Saturday's defeat of Turkey only to alter his stance afterwards. The midfielder underwent surgery regardless, having been plagued by the problem during a disappointing start to the season at Everton, and has provoked an indignant response from Advocaat and the KBVB.
Everton have received a fax from the KBVB that outlines its intent to invoke Fifa's five-day rule on Fellaini. World football's governing body can ban a player from competing for his club five days after an international fixture "in the event that the player, for whatsoever reason, did not wish to or was unable to comply with the call-up".
The Goodison club, however, insist they should not be punished for a dispute between the 21-year-old and his international manager, and believe Fifa will rule in their favour should the KBVB follow through with its threatened action. Everton's head of PR, Ian Ross, said: "As a club, we have met all the required obligations. We were required to release Marouane Fellaini for the two international games – which we did.
"We were told that the player had struck an agreement with the Belgian national manager which meant he would be available for their game on Saturday but would then be omitted from Wednesday's game as he required minor surgery to remove a wisdom tooth. It would appear that the manager changed his mind and told Marouane that he would, after all, be needed on Wednesday night.
"Marouane said he still intended to go ahead with the operation – hence the resulting problem. It is a dispute between player and manager and does not, as such, involve Everton. So, we do expect Marouane to be available for selection for Saturday's game against Wolves."
Fellaini has postponed surgery once this season and Belgium are out of contention for a place in South Africa next summer. Nevertheless, the KBVB's director general, Jean-Marie Phillips, said: "We received an answer from Everton but we stick with our belief on this and will send a fax to Fifa tomorrow morning. We are convinced we're right in our decision to try and prevent Fellaini from playing on Saturday."