FIFA has hit Chelsea with an astonishing transfer ban that will stop manager Carlo Ancelotti signing players until January 2011.
The punishment is for luring 16-year-old Gael Kakuta from Lens in the summer of 2007.
Lens, who lodged a complaint with FIFA when Kakuta signed for Chelsea two years ago, wanted £4.25m in compensation but FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber, recognizing that £4.25m would not stop Chelsea from repeating this action in the suture, decided on this unprecedented action.
A FIFA statement said:
“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. A restriction of four months on his eligibility to play in official matches is imposed on Gael Kakuta while Chelsea are banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two next entire and consecutive registration periods.”
Chelsea posted this statement on their web site:
“Chelsea will mount the strongest appeal possible. The sanctions are without precedent to this level and totally disproportionate to the alleged offence and the financial penalty imposed. We cannot comment further until we receive the full written rationale for this extraordinarily arbitrary decision.”