The Welsh want to pull Savage out of Birmingham's home Premiership game against Fulham on 17 November.

They have a European Championship qualifier in Azerbaijan on 20 November and Fifa rules state that international managers can withdraw their players from club games four days before a competitive fixture.

But while Fifa have told Wales they can pull Savage out of the Fulham game, Birmingham's chairman David Sullivan has told BBC Five Live that they have no such right.

The confusion seems to have arisen from the fact that the Wales fixture falls on a friendly date on the Uefa calendar when clubs would normally only have to release players 48 hours before the match.

Fifa spokesman Nicolas Maingot said: "If the Wales game had been a friendly they would only have been able to ask for their players 48 hours before the game.

"But the match is a competitive one in the European Championship. That means the ruling is that Wales can have their players four days beforehand.

"It is as simple as that, full stop, and clear in our regulations.

"Why should we send out anything further in writing when it is already clear in our rules?"

However, Sullivan said: "Robbie wants to play for Birmingham City and he wants to play for Wales.

"I can't see why he can't do that, and we understand now from Fifa that he can. Fifa contacted us this afternoon and said they are siding with Birmingham City.

"As far as we are concerned Robbie will play for us on the Sunday and we will release him early for Wales so he can fly to Azerbaijan.

"We will play Robbie and there's nothing Wales can do."

In addition to Savage, Fulham's Andy Melville, Everton's Mark Pembridge, Man Utd's Ryan Giggs and Celtic's John Hartson are due to be involved with their clubs on 17 November.