OH HELLO!

Fifa opened a file last year on Pini Zahavi's involvement in Ashley Cole's secret meeting with Chelsea, at the request of the Football Association, and is ready to look into the agent's role again once it receives relevant documentation from the FA.

The world football's governing body opened the file in August 2005 but suspended it two months later to await the outcome of the FA's disciplinary case against Cole's agent, Jonathan Barnett. On Tuesday Barnett was fined £100,000 and banned from practising as an agent, and the FA now wants Fifa to reopen the matter.

Zahavi attended the meeting of Chelsea representatives, Cole and Barnett in January 2005 and a Premier League commission concluded he and Barnett had initiated the rendezvous. However, the FA cannot bring Zahavi to account because he is registered as an agent in his homeland of Israel.

A Fifa spokesman, Andreas Herren, said:

“Pini Zahavi was the subject of a case file that was opened last August and suspended until a final and binding decision had been taken in the case of the agent Jonathan Barnett.

“We are now waiting for the full documentation on the matter and will take it from there. Our legal people will then look into it and see whether the suspended case can be reopened.”