Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid’s transfer ban has been suspended, pending an appeal.
The two Spanish clubs were, earlier this month, banned by Fifa from registering players in the next two transfer windows, following an alleged violation of rules regarding signing players under the age of 18.
Barcelona have just served a similar ban, and both Madrid clubs were due to be banned from signing players until summer 2017.
However, news broke on Friday evening that the bans have been temporarily suspended, pending an appeal, meaning they can now sign players in the summer transfer window.
Spanish football expert Sid Lowe shared the news this evening.
RM and Atletico Madrid both get sentence put on temporary hold by FIFA, to be served later. In other words, they can sign in summer.
— Sid Lowe (@sidlowe) January 29, 2016
However, according to Lowe, if the appeals should fail before the transfer window, they will be unable to sign players.
One BIG caveat: this is the ban put on hold pending appeal. But if they lose appeal BEFORE window opens, they will NOT be able to sign.
— Sid Lowe (@sidlowe) January 29, 2016
So they will be doing all they can to slow the process and have no resolution either way before then… (Not sure of mechanisms/timeframes)
— Sid Lowe (@sidlowe) January 29, 2016
If the bans can be delayed, expect another David de Gea to Real Madrid transfer saga this summer.