Sheldon wrote:if i'm right, i may not be, your wrong there.
fisher would be on the 4 year residency rule and vella wouldn't qualify.
the rule you talk of only applies if the player is in his last year of contract, when vella and fisher extended their contracts they both had over a year to run.
I am refering to their next extensions.
Which both come up at the end of the 2010 season.
As far as I understand it (Could be wrong) the new exemption applies to those players who were classed as none fed trained (4 year or EU passport I belive) under the old rules.
As you say Fisher counts under both situations and AFAIK Vella recived his EU passport and would have also counted that was untill they changed the rules.
That would make them both prime candidates to apply and recive the Fed Trained status.
Also I seem to remember (again could be wrong) that the rules used the term 'current contract' when it mentioned being able to apply.
Therefore even if a player got a new deal surely the 'current contract' they were talking about would still have expired on the same origonal date new deal or not, The only question would be does the 'ended' date apply to the origional end date or does it apply to when the 'currect contract' becomes null and void as it has been replaced.
I dont think I remember this being a 'now or never' situation anfd any player who is under these rules umbrella can apply when they are next able to.
What i'm not sure about is that is Makka still able to apply for fed trained status as he is still in the english game or is it SL only.
i am pretty sure it's true but the proof is in the rednwhite pudding. 
