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The transfer of Moroccan international Hakim Ziyech could be delayed.
The 26 year old winger signed a five year contract with Chelsea in February, after a £37.8 million deal for his services was agreed with Ajax. The move was due to go through at the end of the domestic campaigns, but all that has been thrown in the air because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, FIFA approved plans to relax the rules on contracts and transfer deals in response to the global outbreak, which means the terms of current deals could be extended, and existing contracts will be allowed to run until league seasons are completed – whenever that may be in the various cases.
Ziyech would only formally have been allowed to join his new club on July 1st anyway, and, feasibly, he could end up being able to move to London earlier, if the Dutch league follows the example of their Belgian counterparts and decide that their season is over.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.