They’re going down swinging
Chelsea have decided to take Fifa’s ruling to ban them from signing players for two transfer windows to the Court of Arbitrations for Sport (CAS) after losing their initial appeal.
If their appeal was successful, the ban would have been deferred for a year, giving them the chance to prepare for a year without any new recruits, but Fifa denied them this luxury in a ruling on Wednesday morning.
Fifa did however state that they would be allowed to sign players under the age of 16 in the UK.
“The FIFA appeal committee has decided to partially uphold the appeal lodged by Chelsea,” FIFA said in a statement.
“This ban applied to the club as a whole – with the exception of the women’s and futsal teams – and did not prevent the release of players.”
Football’s international governing body found breaches in 29 cases out of the 92 investigated involving Chelsea.
Not content with the ban being upheld, despite having over 40 players out on loan at various other clubs, Chelsea will take the case to CAS in a bid to get the ban overturned.
They will ask CAS to shelve the ban temporarily to allow themselves to sign players this summer, with the squad in need of some new additions.
A statement from the club read: “Chelsea FC has today received the decision of the FIFA Appeal Committee.
“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. 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).”
It’s unlikely that CAS will overturn Fifa’s ruling, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
This could be a blessing in disguise for some of Chelsea’s younger players, as they may now be called upon with the club unable to splash £70m on a new, terrible striker.
