The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) has barred Spanish football club, Barcelona from selling or buying players over the next two transfer windows.
The development is especially a huge blow to the goalkeeping department, as first-choice keeper, Victor Valdes has announced his decision to walk away on a free transfer when his contract expires at the end of the season, while the deal for his heir apparent, Borussia Monchengladbach’s Marc-Andre Stegen, has only been agreed in principle. It is likely that the deal will no longer go ahead, courtesy of the ban.
According to FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee, Barcelona was found guilty of breaching the rules relating to acquisition of under-age players. Spanish Football Association (RFEF) was also found guilty of allowing such illegal deals.
In addition to the ban and the ultimatum to regularise the deals involving 10 underage players acquired by the club within 90 days, FIFA also slammed a fine of $509,000 on the La Liga giants.
Coming less than 24 hours after the club’s 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final first leg, the sanction was announced in a statement released by FIFA after an investigation that began in 2013.
“The Disciplinary Committee regarded the infringements as serious and decided to sanction the club with a transfer ban at both national and international level for two complete and consecutive transfer periods,” the FIFA statement read.
On its part, the Spanish Football Federation was ordered to pay a fine of $563,698 for its role in the deal. FIFA also gave them one year to modify the rules concerning international transfers concerning minors.
FIFA’s rule on the matter is that a player must be 18 years old to be transferred, except in special cases where the minor’s parents relocates, the relocation takes place within the European Union if a player is aged between 16 and 18, or the player’s home is less than 50km from the national border being crossed.
But on looking into Barcelona’s transfer activities between 2009 and 2013, the club was caught by FIFA’s web-based Transfer Matching System, which became mandatory for all international transfers of professional male footballers in October 2010.
Earlier in February 2013, FIFA had banned six Barcelona youth team players ― Lee Seung-Woo, Paik Seung-Ho and Jang Gyeol-Hee from South Korea, Patrice Sousia of Cameroon, France’s Theo Chendri and Bobby Adekanye, a Nigerian-Dutch teenager ― from competitive games.
A similar woe had befallen English Premiere League’s Chelsea Football Club in 2010 when FIFA banned the club from transfer deals over the signing of French youngster Gael Kakuta. The ruling was later overturned after Chelsea reached an agreement with the player’s former club Lens.
