Michael Mifsud's hopes of making his debut in the Norwegian Premier Division this weekend were dashed yesterday after Lillestrom told the Malta striker to return home after failing to obtain the necessary paperwork in time for the league match against Fredrikstad.

Lillestrom, currently third in the league, were seeking to boost their squad with Mifsud's signing after having scouted him over international matches for various months last season.

Agents had told Lillestrom that Mifsud, who returned to Malta from Kaiserslautern in January and signed an 18-month contract with Sliema, was free to end his agreement with the Maltese club once there was interest from abroad.

However, what the Norwegian club delegates were not informed of was that Mifsud had benefited from advanced payments from Sliema, around Lm20,000, and now the latter were seeking guarantees for their money before issuing the transfer clearance - ITC.

Lillestrom Sportsklubb expressed their position on Thursday in a letter signed by president Per Mathisen and faxed to the Malta and Norway football associations besides Sliema Wanderers FC.

Mathisen said Mifsud has been in their sights for months and were told by their sources that he would be allowed to leave Sliema whenever he wanted once he was joining a club outside the country.

Mifsud left Malta for Norway on June 21 without Sliema's consent. He trained regularly for Lillestrom since then and had already reached agreement on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

However, Mathisen added, the deal was not signed and now the club have told Mifsud to return to Malta once they came to know that the transfer was not as plain sailing as they were led to believe.

In a last-ditch attempt to convince Sliema to release Mifsud, Mathisen said Lillestrom were ready to offer a small compensation fee and a 15 per cent of the sum if Mifsud was sold during his period of contract. This only on condition that a clearance was issued by 10 a.m. yesterday.

Contacted yesterday, Sliema president Robert Arrigo said he had replied to Mathisen's correspondence on Thursday afternoon.

He informed Lillestrom that Sliema had no intention of stopping Mifsud from moving abroad but not at the expense of what his club was owed from the player himself, mentioning the Lm20,000 advance payments in particular.

Arrigo said Sliema turned down the 15 per cent offer on possible income from Mifsud's transfer from Lillestrom but were ready to consider the amount of compensation they were ready to offer.

Moreover, if a pending case before FIFA, where FC Kaiserslautern are claiming they should be paid for the training Mifsud had during his stay in Germany, and calculated at around €30,000, goes against Sliema, any re-imbursements should be made by Lillestrom.

In a brief comment to The Times, this week Mifsud said he was hopeful the matter would be resolved amicably and in time for him to play against Fredrikstad tomorrow.

However, since no clearance documents were released by Sliema yesterday, Mifsud's chances of enhancing his football skills in Norway in the immediate future look somewhat slim.