Gillingham have escaped a possible points deduction after admitting to fielding an ineligible player.

The Gills were unaware that they required international clearance to play Emmanuel Osadebe in their season opener against Sheffield United.

Gillingham won the game 4-0 and Osadebe was named the sponsor’s man-of-the-match.

A Football Disciplinary Commission found the Gills guilty of the offence but mitigating factors meant they avoided a possible three point deduction.

Gillingham thought they were making a domestic transfer for Osadebe, signing him from Tottenham’s foundation college programme but the player was infact last registered with Republic of Ireland side Dundalk.

That meant the Gills should have sought international clearance before playing him.

Gillingham had registered the player with the Football League well in advance of the season commencing but, due to a backlog in player registrations, the Football Association did not process the forms before the current campaign got underway.

Had they done so, the matter would have been brought to the attention of the club and international clearance could then have been obtained.

A Football League spokesman said: “While Gillingham admitted Emmanuel Osadebe should not have been selected for the match with Sheffield United without all of the necessary confirmations being in place, it is also fair to say that the FA should have identified this issue earlier. Had it done so, this breach of regulations would never have occurred.

“Given the exceptional circumstances of the case, the commission has ruled that the club should not find itself subject to a points deduction.”

Osadebe made his Gills debut in the 4-0 win over Sheffield United but he wasn’t selected for the next five games, while the Gills then went about obtaining the necessary clearance.

Gillingham admitted their guilt in the matter but that the “registration process and procedures adopted by the Football Association failed in this instance.”

The FA acknowledged that the player’s registration was wrongly filed with non-league registrations and as a consequence the need for international clearance was not highlighted.

Gillingham haven’t escaped from the episode entirely, however.

The report on the case states that the Gills face paying Osadebe’s former club a compensation fee, to the tune of 130,000 euros.

It states: “The contract (Gillingham) signed with the player was his first professional contract and pursuant to the FIFA regulations, that triggered the payment of compensation to all of his former training clubs.

“(Gillingham) had no expectation of incurring those amounts,”

The Gills were fined £4,000 but that is suspended for a year and only payable if the club breach the same offence.

Gillingham said they would, in future, “not rely on previously used practices” and will “be more careful when dealing with any player of a foreign nationality.”

The Commission stated that a points deduction was not deemed appropriate “because of a failure during an extremely busy time by the Football Association and because the player was registered by the Football League and appeared on their extranet.

“This level of mitigations is such to reduce (Gillingham’s) culpability below the level that which would warrant the deduction of points.”