Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid lose FIFA appeals against one-year transfer bans - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid have lost their appeals against transfer bans. The bans were imposed on them for breaching rules on signing non-Spanish under-18 players; FIFA announced on Thursday.
The statement on Fifa’s official website read: The FIFA Appeal Committee has decided to reject the appeals lodged by Spanish clubs Atlético de Madrid and Real Madrid and to confirm in their entirety the decisions rendered by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee in the respective cases relating to the protection of minors.
The decision by FIFA’s appeal committee means that neither club can register players during the next two transfer windows and will have to wait until January 2018 to make any new signings.
Additionally, Atlético de Madrid and Real Madrid have also been fined CHF 900,000 and CHF 360,000 respectively. Both the Madrid clubs have also been issued with a reprimand and a warning and given 90 days in which to regularise the situation of all minor players concerned.
Soon after the announcement, Real Madrid announced that they would bring a further appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and Atletico announced later that they would be doing the same.
FC Barcelona received a similar two-term ban for the transfer windows in 2015. Similarly to that case, the clubs can make deals to sign players but cannot register them to play until January 2018. During Barcelona’s ban, the club signed players such as Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal, but they did not play until 2016.
The players involved in FIFA’s investigation featured in games from 2005 to 2014 and reportedly also included the four sons of Real manager Zinedine Zidane.
Real Madrid said they were optimistic about a CAS reversal of FIFA’s ruling, saying they “lamented” Thursday’s decision, deeming it “unfair.”
When FIFA denied Barcelona’s appeal, the Catalan club also brought their case to CAS, only for CAS to reject the the club’s appeal.
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