The Premier League Executives and Team Officials are looking set for another battle after the English Football Association sent the game’s governing body FIFA 15 Transfers to investigate (taking place between 2004 - 2006, while still working on another 15 cases) following the FA’s own investigative firm Quest was inability to formally clear them after an in depth look.

Via Guardian

The Premier League were caught on the hop last night when informed that the 15 transfers had been referred to FIFA and their always fragile relationship with the FA will be strained further by the fact that even the League’s most senior officials were apparently unaware of the developments.

A League spokesman said it would be ‘inappropriate’ for them to comment.

But an FA spokesman said: ‘We have referred 15 cases to FIFA since January 2008.’ He declined to elaborate on which transfers were involved.

A FIFA spokesman added: ‘All cases have an element of internationality and fall outside of the FA’s jurisdiction. When FIFA have concluded their investigations into the Quest cases, the first party to be informed will be the FA.

‘FIFA are also reviewing a number of more recent cases forwarded to us by the FA.

‘In accordance with the 2008 Players’ Agents Regulations, these cases fall under the FIFA disciplinary committee.’

FIFA say they received the original Quest dossier in December 2008 and if the two years it took to ban Chelsea over the transfer of Gael Kakuta is anything to go by, the spectre of alleged corruption will be hanging over English football for some time to come.

After a £2million inquiry for the Premier League, the Quest team revealed in June 2007 they had been unable to clear 17 of the 362 deals between January 2004 and January 2006, although they added they had found no evidence of English clubs, managers or officials being involved in irregular payments. Of the 16 deals named, 14 were international transfers and had to be referred to FIFA, and the still unknown 17th deal is believed to fall into the same category.