Fifa Ban Chelsea from Signing Players In Next Two Transfer Windows.

[The Baron]

The absurd thing imo is, the player has been fined £750k and Spanish clubs get fined £20k for racial taunting. A bit disproportionate imo.

Agree 100%

As for this being another snipe at the EPL clubs I think that is bollocks (for once). This was a Fifa and not Platini and Uefa.

[Acidmouse]

look where you got most of your youth team from, it aint London. You stole most of them from smaller clubs illegally under the arrogant attitude of 'we can do anything we want' Kenyon. The same arrogance Kenyon displayed at his time at Man Utd.  Look at this post from two years ago, this rulling is WELL overdue.

Leeds United might have lodged a complaint about the alleged poaching of two of their best under-16 players, but it seems that Chelsea have been exhaustively attracting the best junior talent throughout Britain and beyond — whomever they play for.

Last year, they not only signed Michael Woods and Tom Taiwo from Leeds, but they also took a pair from Sporting Lisbon, four from Reading, one each from Luton Town, Stockport County, Bristol Rovers, Queens Park Rangers and Gillingham and two ten-year-olds from another senior club.

Chelsea have recently sought the signature of Victor Moses, a 15-year-old with a soaring reputation at Crystal Palace, and are also in negotiations for a 13-year-old from Swindon Town.

Of the above clubs, only Leeds and Sporting have accused Chelsea of breaking the rules. None of the others have accused Chelsea of foul play, merely of operating with extreme effectiveness at the junior end of the game and thus walking off with their best young players before they have a value.

There seem few restrictions to the war chest that Chelsea have at their disposal. Thomas Lyskov, a talented left-sided player and one of the stars of Reading’s highly rated academy, was picked up last summer on a five-year agreement and, when the deal went to arbitration, they had to pay Reading £30,000. However, Lyskov was unhappy at the Chelsea academy in Cobham, failed to thrive there and was back at Reading within three months.

Sporting’s complaint arose 20 months ago, when the Portuguese club discovered that three of their most talented development squad players, Adrien Silva, Fabio Ferreira and Ricardo Fernandes, all 16, had been in England, training with Chelsea without any request from the Premiership club to speak to them.

“Sporting believes that Fifa will know how to protect those who invest in and promote football development at high cost,” Sporting said in a statement. The next summer, Ferreira and Fernandes became Chelsea players.

The dispute among the other clubs is not that Chelsea have been “tapping up” players, but that the rules of engagement make for a grey area that leaves them unprotected and which Chelsea are exploiting.

In years gone by, the smaller clubs would ripen their best young talent all the way through to first-team or reserve-team level and that would be the shop window in which the bigger clubs would spot and attempt to buy them. At that level, these players’ value would be in the millions; if they are snapped up at the age of 11 or 12, they will go for nearer £10,000.

As Keith Agar, the chief executive of Stockport, who lost a 16-year-old defender, Harry Worley, to Chelsea in July last year, said: “When the big clubs start knocking on the door, the parents all smell Wayne Rooney and their heads are turned. Why develop talent any more? In cutting our supply line like this, you are killing the grass roots of football.”

Stockport’s loss of Worley went to an arbitration committee and they were awarded £150,000, a sum that could rise to £650,000 depending on his success. But Stockport are in dispute with Manchester City over another of their young talents and Agar makes the point that Chelsea are not reinventing the wheel, simply hurtling aggressively down a path well trodden by others.

Southampton and Liverpool have academy teams of considerable renown — Liverpool won the FA Youth Cup this year and Southampton were runners-up last — but both also spent considerably on recruitment at academy level.

The fascination lies in the ages of some of Chelsea’s targets. Worley’s arbitration case was held last autumn at the same time as those of Scott Sinclair, of Bristol Rovers, and Ryan Bertrand, of Gillingham, who also went to Chelsea. Coinciding with their move was that of Oliver Sprague, who left QPR for Chelsea, aged 11.

However, Joe Gallen, the head of youth at QPR, refused to take the Sprague case to tribunal. “I would have been embarrassed to turn up in a court-type situation discussing how much an 11-year-old is worth,” he said. “We decided to show a bit of dignity and not to stand in the boy’s way. In any case, how can you know if an 11-year-old will make it?” The FA is looking at the business of compensation for clubs losing their young talent. It will take a decision on the Leeds-Chelsea case in the coming days, but greater compensation and increased protection is what the smaller clubs seek.

Outside of a window of opportunity that opens annually on March 1, it is illegal for any club to speak to a boy or the parent of a boy already registered with another club. It is also illegal for scouts to attend age-group matches of other clubs, yet clubs find they are powerless to prevent either. “We know all the excuses,” Gallen said. “They invariably tell you that ‘my son’s playing for the opposition’.”

This was also the experience of Geoff Dunsford, the Bristol Rovers chairman, in the case of Sinclair. “We had scouts talking to Scott after games when, legally, they shouldn’t have been exchanging a word with him,” he said. “But if you ask them, the answer is they were just saying, ‘Well done, good game, son.’ Proving anything more is difficult.”

Bob Dowie, the Crystal Palace director of football, said: “It’s difficult for any small club to hang on to high-profile young players. We know what other clubs do. They employ parents as scouts, take on a boy’s father on a £50,000 deal as a part-time scout. For some clubs, spending £200,000 on a boy is not seen as a gamble.”

Chelsea’s power is also reflected in their growing academy staff. It is well documented that their offers to Woods and Taiwo followed shortly after they had employed Gary Worthington, of the Leeds academy. Likewise, they hired Brendan Rodgers, of Reading, and four Reading boys duly followed (one was his son, another the expensive Lyskov).

Similarly, when Chelsea took on Jimmy Fraser, the Swindon centre of excellence manager, at the start of the year, he went with the endorsement of Andy King, the manager — “I wish him well, just as long as he doesn’t come back here after my young players” — yet Chelsea are now haggling over one of the under-13 players who Fraser was asked to leave alone.

Some clubs have a policy of dropping their best players for fixtures against the big clubs to prevent them automatically appearing at the top of the opposition’s shopping list the next day. Some have tried to ban scouts from their touchlines, but this is often impossible. The best answer comes from Dowie, who is doing his utmost to hang on to Moses, the focus of attention of rival clubs even before last summer, when he scored every goal as his team won the England Schools under-14 cup final 5-0. Dowie’s point is that the clubs that Chelsea have been buying off have a reputation for getting their youth players into their first XI. Chelsea and others do not.

“At Palace, we see ourselves as a development club,” he said. “Our boys get to play in the first team. We take pride in delivering them through. You hold on to a Victor Moses by showing him a window to the first team.”

ALL YOU CAN BUY
Chelsea’s shopping spree in 2005

Lewis Baker Luton Town, under-12, March
Thomas Lyskov Reading, under-15, June
Scott Sinclair Bristol Rovers, under-17, July
Ryan Bertrand Gillingham, under-17, July
Harry Worley Stockport County, under-17, July
Fabio Ferreira Sporting Lisbon, under-17, summer
Ricardo Fernandes Sporting Lisbon, under-17, summer
Oliver Sprague QPR, under-12, September
Jack Saville Reading, under-15, September
George Saville Reading, under-13, September
Michael Woods Leeds United, under-16, autumn
Tom Taiwo Leeds United, under-16, autumn
Anton Rodgers Reading, under-13, December

[cia260895]

good time for contract renewal talks

[Teacake]

I'm not a Chelsea fan but this ban is an absolute outrage, how many other teams are going unpunished for similar offences or worse. Token gesture fine would have been more appropriate, would expect Chelsea to challenge this ruling successfully. This may work for them in a way too though as could be used as a motivating factor. 

So how many windows will Man U, Real Madrid, Man City, and many others be banned for?

This.

Unfortunately no G14 club will ever be banned like this. Utd and Real are pissing themselves.

G14 no longer exists and when it did there were teams like PSV, PSG, Ajax Porto & Leverkusen amongst its ranks. Chelsea are one of the most powerful clubs in world football at the moment so not really sure where you're coming from?

To call it an absolute outrage is laughable, just because teams have been getting away with it for years doesn't make it right. Roma have already been done for similar and long may it continue until the message finally gets through.

[sovietsong]

delighted with this, they are by far the worst team in england for tapping up.  sadly it wont stand...

[gatso]

delighted with this, they are by far the worst team in england for tapping up.  sadly it wont stand...

probs not but they will almost certainly get the one window ban though as there is precedent

and it'll hopefully make them and others think before doing it again, as someone said earlier fining them will never make them stop, maybe this will

[George2Loose]

From BBC website- might hurt them this season?

This January might be different if they fail to win an appeal, because of a twist of timing in football's packed calendar that leaves Chelsea, to some extent, at the mercy of the gods.

Chelsea are likely to lose Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou, Jon Mikel Obi and, arguably most crucially of all, Didier Drogba to the African Cup of Nations when it gets under way in Angola in early January.

[Scottish Dave]

Its about time this happened

They Tapped C'Ashley Cole up too, but got away with it.

Get it up the Chelski! lol

[TheChipPrince]

They have the squad, no doubt.  I did perhaps think'd they'd go and buy in Jan when they'll miss Drogba/Kalou/Essien/Mikel for at least a month though...

From BBC website- might hurt them this season?

This January might be different if they fail to win an appeal, because of a twist of timing in football's packed calendar that leaves Chelsea, to some extent, at the mercy of the gods.

Chelsea are likely to lose Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou, Jon Mikel Obi and, arguably most crucially of all, Didier Drogba to the African Cup of Nations when it gets under way in Angola in early January.

 

[George2Loose]

They have the squad, no doubt.  I did perhaps think'd they'd go and buy in Jan when they'll miss Drogba/Kalou/Essien/Mikel for at least a month though...

From BBC website- might hurt them this season?

This January might be different if they fail to win an appeal, because of a twist of timing in football's packed calendar that leaves Chelsea, to some extent, at the mercy of the gods.

Chelsea are likely to lose Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou, Jon Mikel Obi and, arguably most crucially of all, Didier Drogba to the African Cup of Nations when it gets under way in Angola in early January.

 

 

[Nakor]

This case is only being pursued because FIFA will win.
They will win due to the age of the player - he was 16 when he left Lens, this makes the legal situation very different to a usual tap up case.

[gatso]

didn't chelsea get a 3 point suspended sentence for tapping up cole?

time will be up on that sentence but it must go against them being done for the same thing again

[Rooky9]

2 seasons with an decent number of the squad already the wrong side of 30 would worry me if I was Chelsea management.

[stribling]

A team being forced to focus on their youth squad sounds good to me, lets get some talent into the England squad, Gareth Barry and Stuart downing are not going to win us the World Cup

[The Baron]

I'm not a Chelsea fan but this ban is an absolute outrage, how many other teams are going unpunished for similar offences or worse. Token gesture fine would have been more appropriate, would expect Chelsea to challenge this ruling successfully. This may work for them in a way too though as could be used as a motivating factor. 

So how many windows will Man U, Real Madrid, Man City, and many others be banned for?

This.

Unfortunately no G14 club will ever be banned like this. Utd and Real are pissing themselves.

G14 no longer exists and when it did there were teams like PSV, PSG, Ajax Porto & Leverkusen amongst its ranks. Chelsea are one of the most powerful clubs in world football at the moment so not really sure where you're coming from?

To call it an absolute outrage is laughable, just because teams have been getting away with it for years doesn't make it right. Roma have already been done for similar and long may it continue until the message finally gets through.

Yeah I know that but the real power is with the giants of European Football.

You will NEVER see Man U Barca Real Milan play behind closed doors or get transfer bans.

Chelsea do not draw huge revenues to the champions league pot. They are the largest team without power that you can make an example of.

It's only the same outrage as Eduardo's ban - entirely correct, but totally unimplimentable.