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Chelsea to keep down its appetite
Published: 03 September, 2009, 20:37
TAGS: Sport, Scandal, Football
FIFA, the world governing body of football, has banned the London club Chelsea from signing new players until 2011. A commission found the Blues guilty of encouraging a player from a French club to break his contract.
The promising 18-year-old French player Gael Kakuta has been with Chelsea since 2007 and ended his first season with the club as the youth team’s top scorer, before he broke his ankle in February.
It is because of him, though, that FIFA has banned Chelsea from signing any new players until 2011 – for nearly 18 months, or two whole transfer seasons. The club, owned by Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, was accused of breaking governing rule in relation to this young French man by illegally inducing Kakuta to break with the French club Lens and join Chelsea in 2007.
Besides the ban, the current English Premier League leaders will have to pay the French club Lens €130,000 euros in compensation.
The player has also been punished. He is not allowed to play for four months and will have to pay Lens €780,000 in compensation.
 Gael Kakuta |
The January window may not matter in these circumstances, but missing out on the summer 2010 window could have negative consequences for the club. Football commentators say that Chelsea has an ageing squad, with many players in their early 30s.
Potential injuries among key players must also be taken into account when evaluating possible negative consequences of the ban.
On the bright side, this may be good news for other clubs, as well as for the junior squads and reserve team at Chelsea. It means that those players will be coming up more quickly into the important games than they possibly would have done otherwise.
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