Wenger is being somewhat disingenuous here. He knows very well that the tournament officially starts on the 22nd when Ghana play Cameroon. Presumably he is thinking of the fact that Nigeria's first match takes place on the 23rd. According to Football365, a FIFA spokesperson has confirmed that the rules relate to the start of the tournament (rather than the first match of the player in question) and that if a club fields such an ineligible player they would be deemed to have lost the match. Still, as we said earlier, it is not clear whether the NFA would officially take things this far, and it is unlikely that Arsenal would risk playing Kanu if they weren't certain it was safe.

However, our sources suggest that the ace up Arsenal's sleeve could be the special relationship between Kanu and the new Nigerian coach Johannes Bonfrere. This goes back to the days when Bonfrere (known as Jo) was in charge of youth development while Kanu was playing for the national youth team.

It seems that Jo has not yet refused Kanu's request to be allowed to play for us on Sunday, and if it were simply up to him he'd give Kanu the go-ahead. But the coach is in an awkward position. He's a very recent appointee with a reputation as a disciplinarian to protect. And behind him there is the NFA, a complicated and not always predictable organisation, with members who don't want Kanu to receive preferential treatment and who are happy to make outspoken statements to the press.

See previous article for more on Bonfrere and the NFA.