Irish League farce as Linfield and Crusaders both claim to have signed defender Josh Robinson

Northern Irish defender Josh Robinson is involved in an Irish League tug-of-war after champions Linfield and Crusaders both announced his signature this evening.

Robinson left Crusaders this time last year to join English National League side York City on a two-year deal.

However York recently suffered their second successive relegation to the sixth tier of English football and the Belfast native has opted to cut his time at the club short.

The 23-year-old had been in negotiations with both Linfield and Crusaders and the former appeared to have won the race for his signature when they announced the news at around 10.30pm.

"I'm delighted to be able to advise our supporters that Josh Robinson has tonight agreed to join Linfield on a three-year contract,” manager David Healy told the club's website.

“Josh is a player who I've admired and have been keen to bring to the club to increase the competition levels within our squad.

“I know our supporters will give Josh a warm welcome to the club and I am looking forward to working with him, as we continue our preparations for the competitive season which got off to a winning start last night.”

This announcement was contradicted by a release on Crusaders' website roughly an hour later , in which Linfield's Belfast rivals insisted the defender had signed a four-year contract with them.

The statement read: “Crusaders FC are delighted to announce that Josh Robinson has signed a four year professional contract to return to Seaview and that all necessary documention has been lodged with the Irish Football Association.”

Treasurer Tommy Whiteside added: "It was very easy to deal with Josh. He was happy to come to my home on 9th June and quickly agreed terms and duely [sic] signed a pre-contract dated 29/6/17. Its great to have Josh back in the fold."

With both sides apparently claiming to have the exclusive signature of the popular former Rangers defender, it will likely be left to the Northern Irish Football League to act as arbiter.

It's not the first controversy Linfield have been involved in this week after they forced former Celtic midfielder Joe Miller to withdraw remarks he made about events at a non-existent friendly Aberdeen played against the Blues.