Soccer: Chelsea hit with transfer ban until 2011

Chelsea have been banned from signing any new players until the transfer window in January, 2011. Photo / Supplied

GENEVA - FIFA banned Chelsea from signing any players for the next year Thursday because it encouraged a French player to break his contract and sign for the club.

The governing body of world football said Chelsea can't register any new players, from England or abroad, during the next two transfer windows - in January 2010 and the next offseason. The next time the team would be able to sign a new player would be in January 2011.

Chelsea said in a brief statement on its website it would "mount the strongest appeal possible," adding that the sanctions "are without precedent to this level and totally disproportionate to the alleged offense and the financial penalty imposed.

"We cannot comment further until we receive the full written rationale for this extraordinarily arbitrary decision."

FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber made the ruling after Lens complained that Chelsea lured teenage striker Gael Kakuta to break his contract with the French club and move to London in 2007.

"The DRC found that the player had indeed breach(ed) a contract signed with the French club," FIFA said in a statement. "Equally, the DRC deemed it to be established that the English club induced the player to such breach.

"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."

The dispute panel also banned Kakuta, an 18-year-old France youth international, from playing any matches worldwide for four months.

It ordered Kakuta and Chelsea to pay Lens 780,000 ($1.12 million) in compensation. Chelsea must pay Lens a further 130,000 ($186,000) as a training fee.

Lens president Gervais Martel told The Associated Press he hoped the verdict would teach English clubs a lesson.

"It's a logical decision, they stole the lad off us when he was 16. He was at our place since the age of 8-," Martel said in a telephone interview. "Unfortunately, 95 times out of 100 it's the English clubs who come and help themselves."

Premier League champion Manchester United was criticized recently for its tactics in signing 16-year-old midfielder Paul Pogba from Le Havre. The French second-tier club accused Man United of offering money to Pogba's parents.

Martel said Kakuta deserved to be punished even though he was not an adult when he broke his contract.

"It's a good decision but Lens was not compensated enough. The player is a gem, he is good enough to play for Chelsea," Martel said.

Chelsea can appeal the decision directly to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

FIFA has worked to impress on clubs and players that contracts must be respected, and Chelsea is not the first club that the governing body has tried to ban from making transfer deals.

Swiss club FC Sion was told in April it could not sign players until the 2010 offseason as punishment for its actions in luring Egypt goalkeeper Essam El Hadary in 2008 before his deal with Al-Ahly had expired.

Like Kakuta, El Hadary received a four-month ban from playing.

However, Sion appealed to CAS, which froze the sanctions while it considers the case, allowing the club to trade before the current season began. A ruling is expected later this year.

While a ban would restrict new Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti in his squad-building plans, the club's recent policy of signing players to long-term contracts provides some protection should its anticipated appeal fail.

England defenders John Terry and Ashley Cole both have committed their futures to Stamford Bridge since the FIFA panel met to consider the Kakuta case last week.

Terry's five-year contract and Cole's four-year deal follow offseason contract extensions signed by Nigeria midfielder John Mikel Obi (five years), French winger Florent Malouda (four years) and talismanic Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba (three years).

England midfielder Joe Cole is also being offered a new deal before his contract expires next year.

Chelsea was recently involved in another landmark case with FIFA's disputes chamber. It was that panel which originally awarded the English club 17.2 million ($24.6 million) in compensation against former striker Adrian Mutu.

Chelsea fired the Romania international in 2004 after he tested positive for cocaine, and asked FIFA for damages to recover the player's transfer value. The compensation award was confirmed in July after CAS rejected Mutu's appeal.

- AP