Israel Saria
Chelsea look set to be able to trade in the January transfer window after the Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed to suspend their FIFA-imposed transfer ban until a final decision is made in the case of the signing of Gael Kakuta.
FIFA banned the Blues from any transfer activity for the next two transfer windows in early September after they were found guilty of inducing Kakuta to breach his contract with French club Lens.
Chelsea appealed to CAS against the punishment and, as part of their appeal, requested the transfer ban be ‘stayed’ until the case had been dealt with. CAS are not expected to hear the case until the new year, which should leave Chelsea free to buy and sell as normal in January.
A statement from CAS on Friday read: “The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has granted the request for a stay filed by Chelsea Football Club Ltd and Mr Gael Kakuta in relation to the decision taken by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber on 27 August 2009.
“The FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber imposed, inter alia, a restriction of four months’ ineligibility on Mr Gael Kakuta, and Chelsea Football Club Ltd was banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the next two complete, consecutive registration periods. Such sanctions are now stayed until the CAS renders its final decision in this matter.”
CAS confirmed on October 22 they had received an appeal from Chelsea asking for the ban to be stayed.
Immediately after the decision of FIFA’s dispute resolution chamber was made public, the London club made clear their intent to appeal against the ban and compensation payments to Lens of almost one million euros, which they described as “disproportionate”.
A statement from the club read: “Chelsea will mount the strongest appeal possible following the decision of FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber over Gael Kakuta.
“The sanctions are without precedent to this level and totally disproportionate to the alleged offence and the financial penalty imposed.
“We cannot comment further until we receive the full written rationale for this extraordinarily arbitrary decision.”
PA Sport
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