FIFA Bans Barcelona from Transfers till January 2016
FIFA has barred Barcelona from signing players from the next Transfer window in January 2015 till January 2016 after an appeal against their transfer ban imposed in relation “to the protection of minors” was rejected.
FIFA had imposed a 14-month ban on Barcelona in April after the club were found to have breached rules on the signing of international players under the age of 18.
The ban was however suspended pending the appeal, allowing the three-time European Cup winners time to secure transfers of Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, Real Sociedad’s Claudio Bravo, Valencia’s Jeremy Mathieu and Arsenal’s Thomas Vermaelen, all for about £115m. Despite this, the Catalan club still appears keen to acquire more players before the ban comes into action.
A statement from FIFA on Wednesday reads: “The FIFA appeal committee has decided to reject the appeals lodged by Spanish club FC Barcelona and the Real Federacion Espanola de Futbol (RFEF) and to confirm in their entirety the decisions rendered by the FIFA disciplinary committee in the respective cases relating to the protection of minors.”
Barcelona have also confirmed they will take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and are free to continue signing players during the current window while the court looks into the case.
FIFA’s statement added: “Barcelona is to serve a transfer ban which will see the club prevented from registering any players at both national and international level for two complete and consecutive transfer periods, starting with the next registration period (January 2015) given that the appeal of the club had been granted suspensive effect by the chairman of the FIFA appeal committee.
“FC Barcelona has also been ordered to pay a fine of CHF 450,000 (£295,000) and been given a period of 90 days from today in which to regularise the situation of all minor players concerned.”
