Marlet deal haunts Fulham

Fulham have risked a transfer embargo by ignoring the deadline set by Fifa for payment of the final instalment of Steve Marlet's fee.

The players' status committee of world football's governing body will decide on February 19 whether to impose an embargo after Fulham, as expected, failed to pay the French club Lyon the remaining money or explain why they had not done so.

Fulham are furious with Fifa for ignoring letters from their lawyers requesting arbitration on the transfer of Marlet, whose fee they believe may have been artificially inflated. They suspect the player's agents, Sébastien and Pascal Boisseau, broke Fifa rules by working for both clubs and are taking legal action against them. Marlet moved in August 2001 on a five-year contract with built-in pay rises worth up to £40,000 a week by 2006.

The Reading defender John Mackie has been charged with misconduct by the Football Association for the abuse he directed at the Sheffield United striker Carl Asaba a month ago.

Mackie publicly apologised for racially abusing Asaba after the First Division match on December 14 and donated two weeks' wages to the Kick Racism Out of Football campaign.