Chelsea’s appeal against their two-window transfer ban for signing underage players will be heard by a FIFA appeal committee on April 11, world football’s governing body has confirmed.
No other details about the hearing were given in the short statement from a FIFA spokesperson.
The Premier League club were given the registration ban, which runs until July 2020, last month and were also fined £460,000 for 29 breaches of FIFA’s rules on the international transfer of minors.
Chelsea Football Club is astonished by the FIFA Appeal Committee’s decision not to suspend its sanction pending completion of the appeal process. https://t.co/oz6PUMApj3 — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 8, 2019
Cross-border transfers of players aged under 18 are banned unless there are specific, non-football reasons for the player moving to the relevant country, although players aged over 16 can move within the European Economic Area.
At one point, FIFA was investigating more than 100 cases involving Chelsea, going back several years, but eventually charged the Blues with 92 breaches of article 19 – the rule prohibiting the registration of minors – and other charges related to the club having third-party influence over other club’s players.
Chelsea successfully defended themselves in 63 of these cases at a FIFA disciplinary committee but were found guilty of 29 illegal transfers.
The Stamford Bridge outfit were given 90 days to “regularise the situation of the minor players concerned” and the Football Association was also given a £390,000 fine for letting Chelsea register these players.
Strongly denying any wrongdoing, both Chelsea and the FA made their intentions to appeal clear at the outset, although only Chelsea are mentioned in Monday’s FIFA statement about April 11.
Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have all been sanctioned for similar offences in the past and Manchester City are understood to be the next leading club in line for a sanction related to underage transfers.
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