Chelsea stuck with the players they have...

[Paddy]

Chelsea have been banned from registering any new players for the next two transfer windows in a shock move by FIFA after being found guilty of inducing a French teenager to breach his contract with another club.

Gael Kakuta, 18, joined Chelsea from Lens two years ago after which the French club lodged a complaint with FIFA.

Now FIFA's dispute resolution chamber has ruled that Kakuta breached his contract with Lens and that Chelsea induced him to do so.

They now cannot make any signings until January 2011, while the player has been fined £682,000 and banned for four months.

Chelsea havea right to appeal the decision directly to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

FIFA said in a statement: "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 breach.

"As a result the player was condemned to pay compensation in the amount of 780,000 euros (£682,000), 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 (£114,000)."

uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/03092009/58/premier-league-chelsea-hit-shock-transfer-ban.html

[Shireblogger]

I'm assuming that they'll find a way to over-turn this ruling. No doubt Abramovic will pull some strings somewhere.

[Shireblogger]

Has Arsene Wenger made a statement yet ? Arsenal have been rumoured to be guilty of this type of thing in the past, and we all know how everyone always victimises Arsenal, and singles them out for punishment.

Oh hang on. It's Chelsea, not Arsenal who've been targeted this time.

[Paddy]

Hmm, don't all top clubs do this? Push their weight about and get youngsters from nothing. Just that Chelsea did it badly and evidence was found and they got convicted. I'm sure Chelski and Man U were both after the Norwegian who Man U got in the end, and many more cases.

Not only British clubs!

[Earl Purple]

In reality I think the fairest "penalties" would be monetary compensation to the clubs which should be on-going throughout the player's career.

Players should really be allowed to decide where they want to play, just like people in any other profession.

I also think they should lift the ban on the player playing, although they may restrict him from playing first-team games for Chelsea, thus they either have to loan him out or play him only in the reserves.

[Tom]

Must admit i did have a laugh about this! Its easy to forget just how many youngsters come from elsewhere. Even Reading have got a few from Ireland and abroad in the last few years, i think Darius Henderson who came through our academy started at Leeds and Pleat mentioned today how Wilshere actually started at Luton.

This story did make me wonder how it might have affected us had it come out earlier in the summer though. We've signed 2 players from Chelsea in the last couple of months, 1 permanently and the other on a seasons loan, and im not sure they would have been so willing to let them go. AFAIK players on a seasons loan can't be recalled mid-season can they? That said, i expect the ban to be cut to no more than a year. Apparently Roma got a very similar ban for when they signed Mexes and the same happened to them after appeal.

There was a big article in the Mail today about Chelsea's recruitment drive for their academy in 2005 and whats happened to those youngsters since (not a lot on the whole). Quite a lot seemed to have been signed from our academy, wonder why that is Although i think a lot of it is because they don't have a chance at Chelsea i can't honestly think of too many academy graduates who did much when Rodgers was working in the academy... Nathan Tyson and Henderson are two obvious examples, Adam Lockwood is also a forgotten one, he's done well to be playing at Championship level with Donny having left us when we we were in League 1. But im struggling after that.

[Earl Purple]

It's not a matter of what country they are from. If they are from an EU country they have the freedom to travel around the EU.

Platini's rule of no transfers before 18 is reasonable though. Above 18 they then have the right to choose where they will play.

It is not surprising that young players would like to play for Chelsea. They are a big club who have reached the last 4 of the Champions League several times recently.

[Maximo Mark]

Whilst the idea of barring transfers seems like a good idea I'm still not so sure, I think it will hinder players developments, especially just because of where they're from. People say that a reason for it to be banned is that a lot can happen and change between the ages of 15 & 18. It can indeed and it's why the rule shouldn't come into play. Say there's a potential world star who's Moldovan but he's only 14. He's lined up as the next big thing and could go on to be one of the worlds best players, is he going to benefit more from having those key development years at FC Nistru Otaci, or will he benefit from being coached by some of the worlds best youth coaches at Barcelona, Arsenal or Ajax?

[Shireblogger]

Sept 6, 2009 15:26:40 GMT 1 Maximo Mark said:

Say there's a potential world star who's Moldovan but he's only 14. He's lined up as the next big thing and could go on to be one of the worlds best players, is he going to benefit more from having those key development years at FC Nistru Otaci, or will he benefit from being coached by some of the worlds best youth coaches at Barcelona, Arsenal or Ajax?

As a 14 year-old Moldovan, he's probably much better off staying in Moldova with his family and friends. If he joins Arsenal, Barcelona or Ajax aged 18, he'll still be 3 or 4 years away from the first team.

[frag]

Sept 6, 2009 17:42:44 GMT 1 Shireblogger said:

Sept 6, 2009 15:26:40 GMT 1 Maximo Mark said:

Say there's a potential world star who's Moldovan but he's only 14. He's lined up as the next big thing and could go on to be one of the worlds best players, is he going to benefit more from having those key development years at FC Nistru Otaci, or will he benefit from being coached by some of the worlds best youth coaches at Barcelona, Arsenal or Ajax?

As a 14 year-old Moldovan, he's probably much better off staying in Moldova with his family and friends. If he joins Arsenal, Barcelona or Ajax aged 18, he'll still be 3 or 4 years away from the first team.

Think of a footballer's education between 15 and 18 as their 'undergraduate' years. Lots of foreign undergraduates benefit from coming to Oxford, Cambridge or one of the Ivy League instead of staying in China, India or Russia. Surely footballers will benefit from the best coaching during those years?

Given that the footballers in question are younger, say 14 years old and from Moldova, maybe it should be down to the parents? Maybe it already is?

It should be noted that Andrij Shevchenko was at Dynamo Kiev from ages 10 until 23, and he turned out fine. But then, Dynamo Kiev are a big team for the area.