The deadline day deals taking West Ham United’s Said Benrahma and Pablo Fornals to Lyon and Real Betis, respectively, have been finalised following approval by FIFA.
Issues arose on Thursday evening going into Friday morning, and both Lyon and Betis reacted angrily to the situation, placing the blame firmly at West Ham’s door.
Early on Friday, Lyon CEO Laurent Prud’homme confirmed that FIFA had accepted their appeal and that approval was incoming – whilst Betis also insisted they were confident.
Soon after both clubs were able to confirm both deals were in place and they confirmed their new signings were finalised.
Benrahma loan
Benrahma brings an end to a three-and-half year stay at the London Stadium after joining from Brentford in 2020.
The Algerian moves to Lyon on loan with an option. The French club are paying just over £5million loan fee and then they can make the move permanent by paying a further £12.3million.
Fornals heads back to Spain
Unlike Benrahma, Fornals has moved away from West Ham on a permanent deal.
The Spanish international has put pen-to-paper on four-year deal with the Seville-based club paying £8million for his services. It marks a return to Spain for Fornals, having left Villarreal in 2019 for East London.
HITC understands that West Ham have launched their own internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding what occurred on February 1st.
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