Tottenham confirm arrival of van der Vaart

Spurs had been sweating on clearance to bring the 27-year-old to White Hart Lane after technical difficulties hampered their efforts to submit the relevant paperwork for the move before Tuesday's 6pm transfer deadline.

But after investigating the club's claims that there were difficulties involving computer servers used in the transaction between themselves and Real, the Premier League ratified the signing.

The league said they "can confirm the transfer of Rafael van der Vaart's registration from Real Madrid to Tottenham Hotspur."

Manager Harry Redknapp revealed he had been alerted to van der Vaart's availability just two hours before the window closed.

He said on Tuesday: "They let me know around 4pm that he was available for £8m and, for that money, he is a top player who will definitely improve us."

Redknapp also claimed the player had been set to join Bayern Munich for £18m on Monday but the move broke down.

But that was categorically denied by the Spanish giants, with sports director Miguel Pardeza telling his club's official website: "It is absolutely false that Real Madrid received a 21m euro offer from Bayern Munich for van der Vaart.

"In fact, the German team never showed an interest to sign the player."

Van der Vaart's transfer is not the first to be assessed by the Premier League over whether a deal has been completed before deadline. In February 2009, they took a day to sanction Andrei Arshavin's move to Arsenal.

A year earlier, Manchester City were unable to formally announce the signing of Benjani Mwaruwari from Portsmouth for almost a week due to a wrangle over whether the paperwork had been submitted before the deadline.

But the league needed to make a decision on Van der Vaart by 5pm on Wednesday as that was the cut-off for clubs to submit their 25-man senior squads for the first half of the season.