An appeal against last week's decision to turn down Portsmouth's application for the Zambian striker is being led in London by English solicitor Roger Thompson.

He will argue that Mbesuma meets all the criteria to receive a work permit, despite the Home Office having turned down his initial application last week.

Failure to secure the work permit will cost Kaizer Chiefs a R6m transfer fee for the striker, who was the catalyst behind the AmaKhosi's successful defence of their league championship in May.

Thompson is to lead the argument in favour of Mbesuma, which includes the fact that he does fulfil the criteria of having played 75% of the country's competitive internationals over the last two years and that Zambia are ranked inside the top 75 countries in the world.

Zambia have jumped up 11 places in the latest Fifa rankings, from 73rd place to 62nd in the world. These criteria are the two cornerstones of the British Home Office's policy on granting work permits for foreign players from outside of the European Union.

Letters of recommendation have also been written by Lucas Radebe and Peter Ndlovu, who have both played at the highest level of the game in England.