The main international sport appeal court on Tuesday backed a one year transfer ban against Barcelona in a major blow to the Spanish football giants. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) "dismissed" a Barcelona appeal against the FIFA ban imposed in April for breaching rules on signing players aged under 18.
Barcelona cannot buy players during the transfer window that opens on January 1 and for the summer transfer period before the 2015-16 season. They can only open the cheque book again in January 2016. "FIFA considers that CAS has shown clear and strong support for FIFA's efforts to protect underage players," the world ruling body said in a statement.
Barcelona however said they would consider a new appeal to a Swiss federal court. CAS and FIFA are both based in Switzerland. Barcelona were also fined 450,000 Swiss francs ($455,000, 375,000 euros). The Spanish federation was also reprimanded by FIFA and fined. "The panel found in particular that FC Barcelona had breached the rules regarding the protection of minors and the registration of minors attending football academies," said the statement.
Barcelona said they "totally disagree" with the sanction which they called "disproportionate" and "excessive". The club acknowledged making "errors" but said these were caused by "conflict between FIFA regulations and Spanish legislation." Barcelona said they would study the full CAS ruling and could make an appeal to a Swiss federal court. FIFA ordered the ban in April after an investigation into several under-18 players who were registered and played for Barcelona between 2009 and 2013. It found that Barcelona and the Spanish federation were guilty of a "serious" infringement of rules for 10 players.
Barcelona made a first appeal to FIFA and the sanction was suspended enabling them to make major signings such as Luis Suarez from Liverpool for 95 million euros. They also bought defenders Thomas Vermaelen from Arsenal and Jeremy Mathieu from Valenica, midfielder Ivan Rakitic from Sevilla and goalkeepers Claudio Bravo from Real Sociedad and Marc-André ter Stegen from Borussia Monchengladbach in a summer spree of more than 150 million euros. FIFA's appeal committee upheld the ban in August and Barcelona then went to the CAS.
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