French player Pogba joins Man Utd. from Le Harve

FIFA has cleared French teenager Paul Pogba to play for Manchester United, though his former club Le Havre said Thursday it would still pursue the England champion for breach of contract.

FIFA said Man United could provisionally register Pogba through the English Football Association “with immediate effect” after it issued an international transfer certificate clearing the 16-year-old midfielder to play.

But the decision by a judge working for the FIFA Players’ Status Committee does not prevent Le Havre formally asking for an investigation into how United came to sign the France youth international.

“As always, the decision of the single judge was with regard to the authorization to provisionally register the player in question,” FIFA said in a statement.

Le Havre issued a statement calling the issue of Pogba’s transfer certificate “a nonevent.”

“Moreover, and as outlined in the FIFA decision, the issue of the provisional international certificate does not prejudge the outcome of the case,” the club said.

Le Havre said it will now ask FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber to rule on the case.

The disputes panel has twice issued transfer bans this year, against Chelsea and Swiss club FC Sion, in breach-of-contract cases involving players who previously had received international clearance.

Last month, Chelsea was banned from signing any players until January 2011 after the panel judged it had lured Gael Kakuta to break his contract with French club Lens.

The London club signed Kakuta as a 16-year-old in 2007 and got FIFA permission to play him — then was punished two years later.

Chelsea and Kakuta were also ordered to pay Lens $1.34 million and the player was banned for four months.

Chelsea’s lawyers are studying the FIFA panel’s full ruling before launching an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

FIFA’s player status panel granted Sion permission to register Egypt goalkeeper Essam El Hadary in April 2008. But 14 months later, the disputes panel ruled that El Hadary broke his contract with former club Al-Ahly.

Sion was banned from signing players until after the 2009-10 season and ordered to pay the Egyptian club euro900,000 compensation. El Hadary also got a four-month ban.

Sion appealed to CAS despite a request from FIFA president Sepp Blatter to accept the verdict, and the court froze those punishments while it considers the case. A ruling is expected later this year.