FIFA Takes a Closer Look at Transfers, Bans Chelsea From the Market for a Year

After a summer of absurdity in the transfer market, here’s a story you didn’t expect. Chelsea has been banned from signing any new players for a year. (Of course, that is surely pending an appeal.)

Nevertheless, the decision is particularly symbolic for Chelsea who shaped their current squad by splashing out millions from owner Roman Abramovich’s bank account a few years ago. And it is with those players that the club catapulted itself back into contention after decades of futility.

FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, handed down the decision after establishing that Gaël Kakuta, a talented 18-year-old from France, was induced by Chelsea to breach his contract with Lens when he was 16. The practice is probably far common than one case would suggest.

Rob Hughes, of the International Herald Tribune, explained the repercussions:

Chelsea has shown before, in breaches of contract cases with Arsenal over signing its defender Ashley Cole and with Leeds United from whom it acquired two teenagers, that it is willing to pay the fines. It has also shown an alacrity to take on the soccer authorities in England and abroad and to beat them through the advocacy of a top lawyer, Jim Sturman.

The facts of the Kakuta transfer will very likely remain in litigation for some time, perhaps even years.

The repercussions will be felt throughout soccer immediately.

They signal, as did UEFA, the European soccer authority, a week ago, that the sport is trying to get its house in order. And is prepared to risk exposure to the courts to bring the big clubs, increasingly owned by billionaires, to accept the rules of FIFA and UEFA.

Now the rumor is that Manchester United could be in trouble for a similar reason. A one-year ban on them, too, could seriously change the market for the world’s top players — the Spanish and Italian clubs would be licking their lips.