Scottish Panel held on 27 January in Glasgow
SUMMARY OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE
REVIEW PANEL
PANEL MEMBERS
Pat Stanton—Independent expert;
Willie Miller—Independent expert;
Billy McNeil—Independent expert;
Fraser Wisheart—Scottish Professional Footballers
Association;
Iain Blair—Scottish Premier League Limited;
Frank Coulson—Scottish Football Association.
The Panel considered a wide range of evidence
from the Club including a detailed written submission, testimonials
from Walter Smith, manager of Everton Football Club, Nicolas Leoz
of the Paraguayan Football Association and Andres Zaldivar Larrain,
President of the Republic of Chile. The Club also provided correspondence
from a supporter of Glasgow Rangers.
The Panel watched a video supplied by Glasgow
Rangers Football Club highlighting goals Sebastian Rozental scored
during the 1999 Chilean football season. The Panel also took oral
evidence from Campbell Ogilvie, Club Secretary/Director, Dick
Advocaat, Team Manager and Grant Downie the Club Physiotherapist.
This application concerned a player who had
been a work permit holder previously from 1996 to November 1998.
Unfortunately, he suffered a career threatening knee injury which
meant that he was unable to play. The injury was suffered in January
1997 and was so severe that an artificial graft had to be applied
to the ligament to enable the player to resume his career. Regrettably,
an infection to the bone meant that the recovery was dramatically
extended.
The Panel were unanimous in their opinion that
the video evidence, medical evidence and Mr Advocaat's expert
testimony conclusively demonstrated that the player had fully
regained his fitness and indeed appeared to show that his ability
had improved since 1996. Rozental has scored 22 goals in 27 games
during the 1999 Chilean league season. He is still only 23 and
the panel were convinced that there was no doubt he would be a
major addition to the Scottish game.
Mr Advocaat confirmed that although he had not
originally signed Rozental for Rangers he had tracked the player
when he was previously manager of PSV Eindhoven but was unable
to compete financially with Rangers. He had seen Rozental in training
camp in Florida recently and was completely satisfied that the
player had fully recovered from the injury. He confirmed that
if the appeal was successful the player would be put into the
first team squad immediately. The Panel also noted that Rozental
had been restored to the Chilean National squad for games against
the USA, Costa Rica and Guatemala during the next week, another
indication of proof of his international ability. Chile are regarded
as a powerful force in South American football. The team includes
a number of World Class players and it was thought a measure of
Mr Rozental's ability that he could command a place in such a
squad of players.
The Panel were unanimous in their opinion that
Rozental was clearly a player of the highest quality and would
make an immediate and significant impact on the Scottish game.
They therefore recommended that a work permit be issued.
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