Chelsea Banned From Transfer Market!

Don’t expect any big transfers at Stamford Bridge for the next 12 months; FIFA, the world governing body have banned Chelsea from registering any new players for the next two transfer windows. The club was found guilty of inducing a French teenager to breach his contract with another club. The player in question is Gael Kakuta, 18, who joined Chelsea from Lens two years ago. It was the French club who lodged a complaint with the sport's world governing body seeking compensation for breach of contract from the player and requesting also sporting sanctions to be imposed on the player and the English club.
An official FIFA statement went like this:
"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 breach.
"As a result the player was condemned to pay compensation in the amount of 780,000 euros (£680,995), for which the club, Chelsea, is 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 is imposed on the player Gael Kakuta while the club Chelsea is 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, Chelsea, has to pay RC Lens training compensation in the amount of 130,000 euros (£113,498)."

The ruling means that Chelsea would not be eligible to sign players in the Christmas transfer window, or next summer’s transfer window. The next time they would be able to buy would be December of 2010! What a hit that would be to the club. Include that next summer the World Cup will take place, and it is an even bigger blow. Usually World Cup’s are where the new upcoming stars shine and every team will be looking for new signings. Chelsea are not the first club to have been punished in such a way. Italian side Roma were also given a ban for two transfer windows in 2004 following defender Philippe Mexes' transfer from Auxerre. Roma appealed to the CAS and had the ban cut to one transfer window.