Manchester City’s Kolo And Yaya Toure To Miss FA Cup Derby Clash As Ivory Coast Reject Appeal To Delay Departures

The Ivory Coast have rejected Manchester City’s appeal for Kolo and Yaya Toure to delay joining up with the national squad until next week, meaning they will miss the FA Cup tie against Manchester United on Sunday.

The pair are due to report in Paris on Saturday ahead of the African Cup of Nations, which begins in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea on January 21, with Arsenal also hoping to hold on to fellow Ivorian Gervinho until Monday for their cup clash with Leeds.

However, Ivory Coast manager Francois Zahoui has insisted that all players must report for the national team on January 7, meaning Roberto Mancini will be without two key first-team players for the derby clash at the Etihad Stadium.

"Clubs know the rules," Zahoui told BBC Africa. "I'm expecting them [the Toures] for the Fifa deadline.

"The national team in Ivory Coast is led by people who are well educated and I was surprised that people in England think that we don't know the Fifa rules about dates.

"Here, when we call-up the players, they are obliged to turn up at the date indicated by Fifa. So when we call them up we know that the clubs need to let them go.

"I said to the managers, 'Be careful because there's a great expectation here and we need our cohesion and we have our 10 days together and we need a team spirit at our training camp'.

"Arsene Wenger was my coach [at Nancy in France] so we have a close, respectful relationship. But even with him I said that the head of the Ivorian federation won't mess about. Don't turn this into a stand-off.

"So our call-up day is January 7. I hope and pray they respect this date and that there's not a conflict between clubs and the federation."

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