FIFA ban Chelsea from signing new players till 2011

[Samuel Ng]

Official FIFA statement dated 03 September 2009

On the occasion of its last meeting held on 27 August 2009, the Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) was called to pass a decision in a contractual dispute opposing the French club Lens to the French player Gael Kakuta and the English club Chelsea.

The French club had lodged a claim with FIFA seeking compensation for breach of contract from the player and requesting also sporting sanctions to be imposed on the player and the English club for breach of contract and inducement to breach of contract respectively.

The DRC found that the player had indeed breached a contract signed with the French club. Equally, the DRC deemed it to be established that the English club induced the player to such a breach.

As a result the player was condemned to pay compensation in the amount of €780,000, for which the club, Chelsea, are jointly and severally liable, and sporting sanctions were imposed on both the player and Chelsea in accordance with art. 17 par. 3 and 4 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players.

A restriction of four months on his eligibility to play in official matches has been imposed on Kakuta. Chelsea are banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two next entire and consecutive registration periods following the notification of the present decision.

Furthermore, the club, Chelsea, have to pay Lens training compensation in the amount of €130,000.

[Deepan S/O Murugan]

Huge blow. This means no new signings for next season, OMG. The only good thing about this will be that inevitably a lot of youngsters might get chances for next season.

[Mohamad Hafiz]

I don't understand what FIFA and UEFA wants with Chelsea but from the looks of it, they just want to weaken our club. When Chelsea do it, they're gonna make a big hoohaa out of it, impose bans, fines and all the crap they could find in the FIFA regulations. But when some other big clubs are doing it, they'll keep both their eyes and mouth shut as though nothing happens. I suspect Platini's got something to do with this as it involves a French club.

Its ok Platini, we've got enough depth in the squad to win trophies, 2 seasons ban from registering players is just a pinch. We'll make UEFA pay for their doing.

[Jeremy Lee]

This is absolute rubbish and totally out of order. FIFA and UEFA are always victimising Chelsea because they are a threat to the established, old order of clubs. If they want to do this, they should do it for all clubs. Why don't they ban Man Utd and Real Madrid for example, I'm sure they have committed far more "crimes", and have been doing so for years.

These people are more powerful than the President of the United States and more evil than Hitler. I can't believe they can actually ban a club from making transfers. They are obviously trying to sabotage Chelsea's campaign and prevent them from winning anything! What happens if they have injuries? I tell you, FIFA and UEFA won't be happy until the whole club is burnt down to the ground! And Platini will be lighting the first match.

[WAZZA!]

for sure chelsea will appeal. and i read somewhere that the appeal process/waiting for the appeal will take so long that they in fact will be able to buy during the jan transfer window. and my bet is that the result of their appeal is possibly no ban at all or at most just 1 transfer window. so much for the ban.

[Qyaerus-Syahrein]

FIFA wants to ban Chelsea? Bring it on. I'm sure non-Chelsea supporters are complaining over the years of how Chelsea got an unlimited checkbook and how they bought the Premiership in 2005 and 2006. Well now's the time for you non-Chelsea people to shut your mouths and see that we can do it without pinching Roman's pocket.

Chelsea Football Club, take this ban as a way to prove yourselves that you are not all about the money. So what if our key players are in their 30s? This ban is only until 2011 and by winning the Premiership at least, other people can't complain about Chelsea buying trophies.

I'm sure the FIFA will target Real Madrid and Manchester City after this. Carlo Ancelotti must learn how to manage Chelsea without dipping into any money from Roman. If I were Roman, I would tell my youth team coaches to dig deep and search for any starlets in the youth side.

It's time to proof that Chelsea can do it without the billionaire's financial aid. I have faith in Chelsea. Chelsea...Chelsea...Chelsea!

[Jay]

Obviously chelsea's gonna appeal this.And i can't see this punishment not being reduced.Too many of chelsea appeals have been taken into consideration,if you think about it.Be it from their rude shocker at the semis against Barca,where the bans imposed got reduced.Anyway,their players are more than quality enough to put up trophy challenges.

But i may have to disagree with the a lot of youngsters getting chances part.We all know that the youth system is not something chelsea's famous for.Arsenal and us,yes.But there's not many,or maybe we haven't even heard of many names from the chelsea youth ranks, that can pose a challenge to the first team players.

[Samuel Ng]

if you manager of French club Lens, how would you feel being 'bullied' by a big club. Qyaerus-Syahrein is right. Real Madrid, Man City, Man U will be next targets.

[Tan Wee Dean Dennis]

On a positive note, this is the chance for fringe players to shine. Players like Kalou, Belletti, Sturridge would be thrilled that no one's coming in and they'll have more opportunities to impress. That said, the situation does not look too good from Chelsea's perspective.

If the squad remains injury-free, at least to the key performers, Chelsea would survive this ban. Think of it like a chance for the team to really bond.

[Ng Yong Da]

This ban on Chelsea not being able to buy any new players may come as a blessing in disguise instead for them cos should they manage to win the BPL & the UEFA Champions League this Season , they do not have to change their Title winning side for at least the next two Years till 2011 , which will ensure consistent stability in their play for their next few Seasons till then .

As the saying goes : ' Never change a winning team ' ... So should Chelsea managed to become as successful in this Season as during Jose Mourinho's era , this ban on them not being able to buy any new players would come as a blessing in disguise instead for Carlos Ancelotti and his men !

Chelsea's Loss is Man City Gain ?

But on the other hand , this ban may yet work against them with the presence of cash rich Man City as we all know , Chelsea's Russian billionaire owner is now not the only one with unlimited cash to splash on new players as Man City also has a cash rich Arab owner too to depend on .

Now that the cash at Chelsea has been freezed by FIFA for two years , Man City can be expected to inflict ' salt into Chelsea's wound ' come January when the next period of transfer window will be opened as well as the many phrases of transfer window that will be opened and we can see Man City buy lots of big name players that will seriously pose a huge threat to Chelsea and boost Man City's own Title chances !

Will Man City be able to do a Chelsea following this transfer ban on The Blues imposed by FIFA ? Will this be the turning point in both Chelsea's & Man City's fortunes ?

[Norman Ng]

When all seem going well for the Blues,this extraordinary ban struck them and it will definitely weaken the squad in terms of quality and mentality.Chelsea is no doubt a team with competent players all around the pitch but age will soon take the toll on the players and by then,they could only pour in quality youngster to the first team which their academy have not really been excelling since the takeover by Abramovich.Chelsea might appeal but the ban will only be reduce for maybe about a few months and that ban period will seriously put a dent into Chelsea hope for the EPL and Champions League especially if their key players are getting injured more often.It is now up the youngster of Chelsea to prove their worth!

[Awad Faruk Alkaff]

Stripping this whole case down, we must first know the definition of a contract. I have just checked my dictionary and it says a contract is a 'binding legal contract'. Therefore, by signing a player who is under contract, regardless of FIFA rules, it is illegal. Just to appease Chelsea fans who think I am biased towards Chelsea, I think that Manchester United should be banned from transfers for signing the under contract Paul Pogba. What is a contract then nowadays? It is worth nothing since almost every player signed by a club nowadays is under contract. There is absolutely no point in signing a contract if big clubs can so easily breach the contract. FIFA should make a rule that any player under a contract cannot sign for a new club. They have to be a free agent to move clubs. That is the only way to stop such things as big clubs, especially English clubs, think that they are above the law. Simple as that.

[Jeremy Lee]

Awad Faruk Alkaff said:

Stripping this whole case down, we must first know the definition of a contract. I have just checked my dictionary and it says a contract is a 'binding legal contract'. Therefore, by signing a player who is under contract, regardless of FIFA rules, it is illegal. ..... What is a contract then nowadays? It is worth nothing since almost every player signed by a club nowadays is under contract. There is absolutely no point in signing a contract if big clubs can so easily breach the contract.

Before people jump to conclusions and say "oh, its Chelsea's fault, they did something illegal and breached a contract", stop and think for awhile. I may not know a lot of the specifics, but this I know: the contract that people are talking about was not entered into by Chelsea, the contract is between Kakuta, the player, and Lens, his club at the time. Chelsea was NOT a party in this contract. Therefore Chelsea did NOT commit breach of contract, the PLAYER did. What happened was that Kakuta broke his contract with Lens because he knew that Chelsea were interested in signing him. If you read the Official FIFA statement carefully, Chelsea are being punished by FIFA because they supposedly INDUCED Kakuta to break his contract with Lens, NOT because they signed a player who is under contract, or breached a contract. How can Chelsea breach a contract when they didn't have any contract with Lens in the first place?

What I want to know is, how do they know for sure that Chelsea told Kakuta to break his contract? Did they put a gun to his head and tell him to break it? The player chose to break his contract of his own free will. Think of it, if you are working for a small company for a measly salary, and one day a big company approaches you and says they are interested in hiring you and would pay you 2,3, maybe 5 times your salary if you were working for them, would you do anything you could to quit your current job and join them? That's what Kakuta did, which is quite understandable. The transfer ban is a punishment that extremely excessive in my opinion, for something that happens regularly in the corporate world.

Secondly, what irks me the most is not the ban, but the inconsistency of FIFA, and their belief that they are so powerful, they can just do anything they like. I dare say almost every big club in Europe has done this before. Not only Chelsea. Not only Man Utd, but even Arsenal, who famously snatched Fabregas from Barca. I'm sure there are more examples with Liverpool, Real Madrid, Milan etc etc etc. If FIFA wants to go down this road, fine. They should then ban all these other clubs as well. But I don't think they will, because they only don't like English clubs. And they know that Chelsea is an easy target because people don't like them anyway.