Chelsea to take transfer ban appeal to Court of Arbitration for Sport

Chelsea will challenge a transfer ban from FIFA at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The London club revealed on Wednesday that they would escalate their efforts to have the transfer ban rescinded after football’s world governing body rejected their appeal.

Chelsea cannot sign players over the next two transfer windows after FIFA issued their ruling on the matter earlier on Wednesday but the governing body did make some concessions.

The Blues were banned from signing players for their men’s teams for the next two transfer windows after being found guilty by FIFA’s disciplinary committee of breaching regulations relating to the recruitment of minors back in February.

The appeal committee also confirmed the fine of 600,000 Swiss francs (526,000 euros, $590,000).

Chelsea have denied any fault in the matter and launched an appeal.

FIFA announced that its appeal committee had “decided to partially uphold the appeal” this week.

The committee agreed to allow Chelsea to sign players who are under 16 who are not “international transfers or first registrations of foreign minor players”.

The ban is already in effect meaning Chelsea will still not be able to sign male players over the age of 16 when the summer transfer window opens, a serious blow to their hopes of closing the gap on Manchester City and Liverpool.

Chelsea responded to FIFA’a decision by saying they intended to lodge the transfer ban with CAS.

“The club notes that the FIFA appeal committee has decided to partially uphold the appeal lodged by Chelsea FC against the decision of the FIFA disciplinary committee,” a statement from Chelsea read.

“However, the club is very disappointed that the transfer ban of two consecutive registration periods was not overturned.

“Chelsea FC categorically refutes the findings of the FIFA appeal committee. 

“It acted in accordance with the relevant regulations and will appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).”

Chelsea had been eager to have the ban lifted, or suspended pending an appeal, so they could be in a position to sign a replacement for Belgium’s Eden Hazard, who is being touted as a possible £100 million (116 million euros, $131 million) transfer target for Real Madrid. 

“It’s very difficult to cover the gap at the moment; we need to work, probably we need to do something from the market,” said Chelsea Manager Maurizio Sarri.

“So it’s not easy, because the level of the top two is very, very high. As we can see in Europe, so it’s not easy.

“Of course, we have to work and we have to try. In my opinion we can reduce the gap.

“I think that we have to buy only one, two players, otherwise it’s very difficult to improve immediately.

“I think we are a very good team, so we need only one, two players, no more.”