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17th Jan 2016

Premier League clubs could be hit with Fifa transfer bans similar to Barcelona and Real Madrid

Their worst nightmare

Robert Redmond

This is very worrying.

Both Real and Atletico Madrid were recently banned for two windows from making transfers due to breaching rules on signing and registering players from outside Spain.

According to Jose Angel Sanchez, the same fate could befall Premier League clubs, but the Real Madrid director didn’t specify which clubs were currently under threat.

“I have relations with British clubs and I know for a fact that in many of these cases the disciplinary investigations have already started a while ago,” Sanchez, quoted by The Daily Telegraph, told Spanish radio last week.

Arsenal v Manchester City - Premier League

“I imagine that Fifa’s resources for these investigations are limited and Fifa cannot do everything at the same time but I have the impression that this is being done at European level and that more cases will follow, one after the other.”

“Because of my work I have a lot of relations with the English clubs and I know for a fact that Fifa has already opened investigations into some of them, I don’t know if it has already reached the disciplinary stage. I have the feeling that Fifa wants to do this worldwide. I have the feeling there will be a lot of cases in the next couple of years.”

Barcelona have just served a similar ban, and there’s been no other reports that Premier League clubs are under investigation.

You’d imagine if the Madrid director had as much foresight as he claims, he would’ve seen their own ban coming sooner.