Chelsea banned from buying any new players

[stokeriño]

Fifa have banned Chelsea from registering any new players in the next two transfer windows.

The world's governing body have handed down the punishment after French clubs Lens made an official complaint over Chelsea's signing of their young player Gael Kakuta in 2007.

Fifa's Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) has now found in Lens' favour and ruled that Chelsea are 'jointly and severally liable'.

As such Chelsea have been banned from signing players over the next two transfer windows, which will mean they will not be able to bring a player into the club until 2011.

As well as the ban Chelsea have been fined £680,000 and will have to pay Lens £113,000 in compensation.

Kakuta, a regular in Chelsea's reserve side, has also been banned from playing for the next four months.

The full statement from Fifa reads: "On the occasion of its last meeting held on 27 August 2009, the Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) was called to pass a decision in a contractual dispute opposing the French club Lens to the French player Gael Kakuta and the English club Chelsea.

"The French club had lodged a claim with Fifa seeking compensation for breach of contract from the player and requesting also sporting sanctions to be imposed on the player and the English club for breach of contract and inducement to breach of contract respectively.

"The DRC found that the player had indeed breached a contract signed with the French club. Equally, the DRC deemed it to be established that the English club induced the player to such a breach.

"As a result the player was condemned to pay compensation in the amount of €780,000, for which the club, Chelsea, are jointly and severally liable, and sporting sanctions were imposed on both the player and Chelsea in accordance with art. 17 par. 3 and 4 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players.

"A restriction of four months on his eligibility to play in official matches has been imposed on Kakuta. Chelsea are banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two next entire and consecutive registration periods following the notification of the present decision. Furthermore, the club, Chelsea, have to pay Lens training compensation in the amount of €130,000."

Sky Sports

Either I wasn't aware that this transfer was contentious, or I'd just forgotten, but god damn. It would hurt less if it were for the sake of a better player!

God knows how Ballack et al will be holding up in 18 months' time without replacement...

[Blue Rosler]

That's insane, I didn't know you could even ban a club from signing something.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

...It's probably illegal under European law.

I fully expect Chelsea to (rightly) contest it and it'll become a hefty fine or something else instead.

Basically it's a total joke.

[Slogger]

Let's just say by some freak of nature, That within 18 months Chelsea has been so injury riddled that they can't put 11 players (Or however many the FA say you need to field a full team) on the park, What would happen.

Would they be forced to use youth players or what?

I know it's a stretch, But I thought to myself that it would be downright wacky if it happened for real.

[Turbo Yannis]

Oh fuck. This proper stings >_<

I hope we'll/can appeal this. Even if we managed to get it down to not being allowed to sign anyone in January, it wouldn't be too bad.

[stokeriño]

Well, the reserve squad certainly.

Hey look, Miroslav Stoch, you're back in the first team by process of elimination!

[Scott McFly]

I just saw this and I was like "what the hell, can they do that?". I've just never heard of such a thing. As Hamster says, they'll possibly get it rescinded on appeal, but if not then it's one of the most bizarre situations I've ever seen in football. They better hope the players they've got don't turn shit, get seriously injured or want to leave.

[Hobo]

I hadn't heard about this before, what I get from the news piece is that Chelsea coerced Kakuta into breaking his contract with Lens to join them?

I'm not really sure if this will have any huge effect on Chelsea's performance as a club unless they have a major injury crisis or something, except the fact that whilst the ban is in place some aged key players will be even older by the time this runs out and may need replacing.

[IAceI]

What was the problem with the transfer for Kakuta?

[Scott McFly]

He was apparently induced into breaching his contract with Lens by Chelsea. In which case they better not look the whole Ashley Cole saga or it'll be January 2013 instead... >_>

[Thomas]

It's good to see Chelsea being punished for cheating.

[IAceI]

I'm assuming he was on a professional contract of some sort? Or is it slightly different to the way the big clubs all lure Europes best to England with promises of dib dabs and bon bons, and have been doing publically for a long time? >_<

[Crybaby Bunting]

This is incredibly injust and harsh.

It's almost as bad as the Mutu thi... ¬_¬

But seriously, I'm getting the feeling that if this stands, then it's going to cause one hell of a predicament for many other clubs. I'm sure there was at least two Manchester United players who broke their contracts with an Italian club to join, and there's also Jonas at Newcastle which could fuck things up for our future if we ever get promoted and need new players >_<

[stokeriño]

So to summarise: last week it was Arsenal's turn to complain about some decision that will clearly never be applied consistently to other offenders (of which there are many). This week, it's Chelsea turn.

Next week, Spurs!

[METALMAN]

Oh dear. Guess I won't be going Chelsea on FM 2010 then.

[Adam]

I'm surprised that several people have never even heard of a transfer embargo, but then maybe I'm naive to think people pay attention to leagues other than the Premiership.

Teams get embargos in the lower leagues a fair bit, right now Crystal Palace have one placed on them, and I'm not sure but I think Chester do too, but that's for financial reasons.

It does seem a little harsh this punishment, but allegedly Chelsea paid Kakuta money to buy out his contract with Lens so that they could sign him on a free transfer. That's just a ridiculous thing to do.

[Sam]

I imagine past discretions didn't go in their favour either but it's a pretty unique thing for a big team to be hit with.

[Pesci]

They'll probably appeal successfully but I hope they don't. This is hilarious.

[Scott McFly]

I'm surprised that several people have never even heard of a transfer embargo, but then maybe I'm naive to think people pay attention to leagues other than the Premiership.

Teams get embargos in the lower leagues a fair bit, right now Crystal Palace have one placed on them, and I'm not sure but I think Chester do too, but that's for financial reasons.

I've heard of teams receiving transfer embargos due to financial irregularities or being in administration, just not as a punishment.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Yeah the embargo rule is in place if a team is in financial difficulties. That's happened on numerous occasions.