THE Hull City manager Steve Bruce has expressed his surprise at the news that Sunderland had only been fined for playing 22-year-old South Korea striker Ji Dong-won in four Barclays Premier League games without international clearance.

Bruce, who as then Sunderland manager signed Ji from Chunnam Dragons in 2011, said: "That's pretty bizarre stuff, that it's only surfaced now. They should be in serious trouble, I would have thought."

Ji played against Fulham, Southampton, Crystal Palace and Manchester United in the league and MK Dons in the Capital One Cup before it emerged that his international clearance, which Sunderland had submitted electronically on his return from a loan spell with German club Augsburg, had not arrived.