Chelsea found guilty of breaching 150 rules involving 71 players as full details of transfer ban revealed
CHELSEA received their Fifa transfer ban because they failed to register overseas minors over multiple seasons.
It has now emerged Fifa found Chelsea guilty of a total of 150 breaches of rules, involving 71 players.
The Blues are still awaiting a date for their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport where they hope to get the green light to spend again in January.
But now Fifa have released the full findings of Chelsea’s failed appeal against the two-window ban imposed in February.
And the finding show that Fifa simply dismissed many of the club’s arguments by pointing to the sheer number of youth games played by some of the players.
One player, who is unnamed, was said to have played 75 games for the club between 2013 and 2016, despite only being registered as a trialist over three six-week periods.
Burkina Faso attacker Bertrand Traore - who moved to London from his homeland and was sent to the £20,000-per-year Whitgift School in Croydon - played for the club for three years before being registered in 2014.
One child, 13 when he first came to England, played 55 games for the club while other teenagers also spent elongated spells as unregistered Chelsea players, some playing more than 20 matches.
Chelsea claimed these matches were not “organised football” because they were training matches which did not necessarily follow the Laws of the game.
But the Fifa panel ruled: “The Committee has no doubt the matches referred to were organized under the auspices of The FA.
“The players moved to England, joined Chelsea FC and played organised football."
Chelsea also argued Fifa had taken an “unprecedented and unsustainable step” by punishing them over children “who were never registered” with the club or played in trial games.
The Blues argued that charges covering 51 players were in breach of Fifa’s regulations because the youngsters involved were variously UK nationals, transferred from other English clubs, were too young or had spent long enough in England to not be liable to the rules.
But Fifa dismissed those arguments, confirming the verdicts in a total of 148 cases involving 69 different players plus two cases of breaches of third party ownership rules.
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The committee, headed by former Swedish Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom, said: “Chelsea explained trials for overseas players would consist of three or four visits lasting up to three weeks each.
“But several players actually spent a significant amount of time with Chelsea, considerably higher than the one suggested.
“Players were also taking part in organized football without being registered. This type of conduct cannot be tolerated.”