By Mark Heys
November 15 2005

Asian Player of the Year nominee Hidetoshi Nakata will miss out on scooping this years award due to his pressing club commitments with Bolton Wanderers. The 28-year old Japanese international has won the award on two previous occasions but Asian Football Confederation rules stipulate that the player must be present for the awards ceremony in two weeks time to stand any chance of winning.

Co-incidentally the ceremony takes place in Kuala Lumpur on the night that Wanderers are due to play Leicester City in the Fourth round of the Carling Cup and Trotters manager Sam Allardyce has refused permission for Nakata to leave his club base as he needs to keep his squad together prior to a busy pre-Christmas run in which involves league and cup action.

A spokesperson for the Asian Football Confederation stated:

"The main criteria is that the recipient must be present in Kuala Lumpur. If he's not present, then he forfeits the award. And we will award it to the next player on the list."