Kenwyne Jones unable to play vs. Vancouver Whitecaps in CONCACAF Champions League opener

For those of you hoping to get your first look at Atlanta United striker Kenwyne Jones on Tuesday, you'll have to wait a little bit longer. Wired 868, a Trinidad and Tobago newspaper, reported on Monday night that the Atlanta United striker hadn't yet received his International Transfer Certificate (ITC) in order to be eligible to play.

Central FC has since confirmed to Dirty South Soccer that Jones won't be available against the Vancouver Whitecaps in their CONCACAF Champions League opening group match. They did say that they expected him to be available for the club's next CCL match against Sporting Kansas City on August 16.

An ITC is described as such by FIFA's official transfer rules:

Players registered at one association may only be registered at a new
association once the latter has received an International Transfer
Certifi cate (hereinafter: ITC) from the former association. The ITC shall
be issued free of charge without any conditions or time limit. Any
provisions to the contrary shall be null and void. The association
issuing the ITC shall lodge a copy with FIFA. The administrative
procedures for issuing the ITC are contained in Annexe 3 of these
regulations.

tl;dr version - a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo between two country's federations to allow a player to play.

Apparently, there's been a delay in the T&T federation acquiring Jones' ITC from whichever federation has it in their possession. Jones was owned by Cardiff City previously, but was on-loan with Al Jazira in the United Arab Emirates, Then he was signed by Atlanta United in July, so his ITC is somewhere in between. According to FIFA rules, the federation in possession of the ITC has 30 days to respond to the request for an ITC before it transfers automatically.

We all would like to see Jones on the field in a competitive environment to see what Atlanta United can expect in 2017. Unfortunately, we're just going to have to wait a little longer.