Dalian Wanda have been told by FIFA to pay a US$1 million transfer fee for international Sun Jihai or else the midfielder would be allowed to return to English side Crystal Palace. First Division Palace were forced to sell Sun back to Dalian in July as the club faced bankruptcy and were unable to even meet players' wages. But the Eagles administrator, Simon Paterson, said now the club's financial problems had been resolved they would prefer to see the player return rather than receive the transfer fee. 'We sold him out of necessity in July because our situation then was rather critical but now our problems have been resolved we would rather have him back,' Paterson said. 'He's rather a good player, in fact he's superb.' The deal with Dalian followed an approach from the Chinese club, who were facing problems on the pitch and were languishing at the bottom of the league. 'Sun had an awful lot of pressure put on him to go back to his old club from the Mayor of Dalian and the Chinese FA. I think he would have rather stayed here,' Paterson said. Dalian had been so anxious to secure his return they agreed on a US$1 million transfer fee together with interest of US$5,000 a day until full payment was made. 'It was an unusual transaction for them and it took rather a long time to do. English clubs transfer players all the time but I don't think they were used to the concept,' Paterson said. So far Palace have received about US$500,000 in interest payments from Sun's club but following a delay in receiving the full payment they had asked FIFA to intervene. 'We have given FIFA all the documentation and they have been in touch with Dalian. They have given them a deadline of December 3 to make the full payment, otherwise Sun will be allowed to return here,' Paterson said. The Chinese club had been in contact with Palace last week and promised to make the full payment but claimed foreign exchange restrictions were delaying completion of the transaction. But the matter has been further complicated by disciplinary action Sun faces for allegedly man-handling a referee during a recent Olympic qualifying game. Palace's boss Steve Coppell said the club were anxious for the disciplinary matter to be resolved. 'He got himself into trouble by touching a referee and the Olympic organisers could make an example of him. He could be facing a lengthy ban and we can't afford to bring him back and pay his wages if he'd be unavailable. But if he's not going to come back then we want our money,' said Coppell. But a Palace spokesman said yesterday that they had heard that any penalties from the Olympic body were unlikely to affect Sun's ability to play in England. 'We believe the worst that would happen is that Sun would be banned from playing at international level for a year but would only face suspension at the club level for one month,' the spokesman said. Sun and former national captain Fan Zhiyi, became the first Chinese players to be signed by an English side in August last year. Palace paid GBP1.7 million for the two players.
