My brain is fried mate!

I'll PM my new theory, but I feel like one of those conspiracy theory weirdos.

Edit - My theory was based on flawed logic, brought about by too much thinking.

Why did fisher leave the non fed list?

Anyway while nothing concrete has come out I personally believe a announcement confirming the 2008 rule (dispensation) will be dropped isn't far from happening.

In a year or two it won't be necessary anyway because players playing under that rule will have retired. I don't know how many there are but I would think that in 2/3 years virtually all of them will have gone, then would be the time to assess whether further changes to the rules are required.

Fisher benefits from the 2008 ruling that you suggest will be dropped. Did you mean why isn't he quota? EU passport, I assume - given that he plays for Scotland possibly a British one.

I doubt the 2008 exemptions will be removed. It'd be a u-turn on top of a backtrack. You can't do it for players under-contract without creating a lot of problems and if you leave it until all those contracts have run out then it'd be reaching the stage of it being a pointless token gesture. Either messy or unneccessary, depending on the timing.

No I meant why did you included him 2008 then not mention him again?

Oh yeah, sorry. The 2008 exemptions didn't come in until the end of that year and only applied for the 2009 season onwards. I assume that he was already exempt from quota, but in that year only, by my reckoning, he'll have been non-fed.

edit - or perhaps you mean the final year of contract thing? Not sure about this with him and Vella. It was always a of an odd-one, that and is the cause of some of my question marks. Did it cover players agreeing new deals or moving clubs mid-contract? Also iirc the exemption was initially for 2007 players and then later extended to 2008ers - Fisher and Vella were both here for 2007, so may have already been off for 2008.

If anybody is enjoying these puzzles (why do I doubt it?), here is mine from yesterday. 'Simply' put - if the club-trained quota was 7 last year and has now increased to 8 (it has) and assuming Rovers had only 7 or at best 8 last year in the top 25 earners, but Hodgson no longer counts as club-trained (he's now 21) and we've signed (Hall, Green, Mason) as many non-club players as we've released (Mills, Walker, Ratu), how do we reach that minimum quota?

I can think of 3 or 4 different logical explanations, without needing dispensations. Parka and a pair of 1970s NHS specs for anybody who can get them or think of any others.