ZURICH: Barcelona have lost an appeal against a decision to ban them from the transfer market for two consecutive windows, soccer’s world governing body FIFA said in a statement on Wednesday.
As a result, Barca, who were found guilty of breaching rules on the international transfer of under-18 players, will be banned from registering players during the next transfer window in January as well as the 2015 summer window, FIFA said.
FIFA also rejected Barcelona’s appeal against a 450,000 Swiss francs (493,637 dollars) fine and have been given 90 days to regularise the situation off all the minor players concerned, the governing body said.
The ban was originally imposed in April and would have covered the current transfer window, followed by the next one in January.
Barca have since signed Uruguay forward Luis Suarez, himself serving a four-month ban from football, for 108.18 million dollars, Belgium centre back Thomas Vermaelen, France defender Jeremy Mathieu and Croatia midfielder Ivan Rakitic. (Reuters)
