Why Bailey Cadamarteri was allowed to make Wrexham's FA Cup squad despite Sheffield Wednesday outing
The naming of Bailey Cadamarteri in Wrexham’s squad for an FA Cup tie with Ipswich Town last night left one or two scratching heads.
The young forward left Sheffield Wednesday for the Welsh side last week in a £1m deadline day switch amid interest from a host of clubs. He was left out of the squad for their weekend defeat to Millwall but sat as an unused sub for the cup visit of Ipswich Town on Friday evening.
The reason it left some wondering was that he had played in the FA Cup just a few weeks earlier - in the colours of Wednesday. The Jamaica international played 77 minutes of the Owls’ third round defeat to Premier League Brentford, a fate that would have traditionally seen him unable to feature in the fourth round for his new club due to him being ‘cup-tied’.
But rules have changed in England’s domestic cup competitions this season and Cadamarteri was therefore eligible to feature.
Rule 95 of the official rules of the ‘FA Challenge Cup’ read as something of a word salad but states: ‘A Player shall only play for one Club in the Competition during the same Season, save that a Player that has played for one Club in the Qualifying Competition and/or the Competition Proper may play for a maximum of one other Club in the Competition Proper (but may only play for a maximum of one Club in any given round of the Competition).’
Apparently that means you can play for two teams in the same FA Cup season - and Cadamarteri was good to go.
Wrexham won the tie 1-0 and take their place in the fifth round for the first time in 29 years thanks to the goal of another ex-Wednesday forward, Josh Windass. The 2023 Wembley hero bagged his ninth goal of the campaign across all competitions.