Fifa and the FA narrowly avoided a collision course yesterday when the game’s world governing body retracted its renewed bid to have Martin Taylor’s three-match ban extended.

On a day of mixed messages, the reaction to the Birmingham City defender’s tackle on Eduardo da Silva, the Arsenal striker, threatened to get out of control as Fifa initially let it be known that it wished the FA once again to “reconsider the sanction” that had been meted out to Taylor last month.

The move seemed likely to invite an argument from the FA, whose authority would thus have been undermined. On Tuesday, the FA, responding to suggestions from Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, that a perpetrator’s absence from the game should correlate to the victim’s, made it clear that a three-match ban was the appropriate penalty for Taylor’s red-card offence, despite Eduardo’s misfortune in suffering a compound fracture of the left tibia and dislocated ankle that is likely to sideline him for nine months. Taylor was therefore available for selection again and made his comeback for the reserve team on Tuesday night.

Alex McLeish has decided against recalling Taylor for tomorrow’s Barclays Premier League match away to Reading, because of the form of Liam Ridgewell and Radhi Jaidi during his enforced absence, but the Birmingham manager was left aghast when told that Fifa called for a change of punishment.

“We’ve drawn a line under this,” McLeish said. “We’ve seen worse tackles since that one, without naming names. I’m afraid they [Fifa] would have to review a thousand other tackles. They’re still talking about this one because of the severity of the injury.

“But if some of the other tackles in recent weeks had caused the same damage, there’d be the same outcry. Maybe there is something of the small-team syndrome again. There’s no need to speak to the FA because [if Fifa did try to move this on], we would have a legal case.”

In the morning, in a statement sent to Reuters, Fifa confirmed that its disciplinary committee had reviewed the FA’s file on Taylor and sent back a letter requesting that it “once again review the incident in detail and reconsider the sanction”. Fifa said that the FA had subsequently suggested a meeting and that it had welcomed this initiative.

By the afternoon, Andreas Herren, a Fifa spokesman, set the record straight. “The statement was imprecise,” he said. “There will be a meeting next month with the FA, but it will be an exchange of views on disciplinary matters in general. It will not be related to the Taylor case per se because that has now been dealt with. The FA have pointed out to us the considerations they took in determining his sanction and the case is not going to be pursued by Fifa. Both sides felt, however, that a general discussion would be beneficial and we hope the meeting can help us get a broader picture of the issues involved.”

Taylor’s future at St Andrew’s was in the balance before the furore that followed the Eduardo incident. He almost moved to Norwich City, where he had been on loan, and Queens Park Rangers in January, before being recalled when Jaidi went away with Tunisia on African Cup of Nations duty.

Now, for a crucial relegation battle, the manager believes there is no need to change his back four and Taylor is unlikely to travel to Berkshire. “I am satisfied with the central defenders’ performances,” McLeish said. “That’s what happens when you go out of the team sometimes through suspension or injury, somebody comes in and impresses to make it hard for me. The two guys in central defence have done well. I need to make sure that I cover myself in other areas.”