Barcelona transfer ban appeal rejected by Court of Arbitration

Published January 08, 2015

Barcelona, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) - FC Barcelona will not be allowed to sign any players in 2015 after the club's appeal against a transfer ban was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday.

The Catalan side was handed a 14-month ban in April after being found guilty of breaching FIFA's rules governing the transfer of players under the age of 18.

Barcelona also had an appeal rejected in August, but the pending appeal allowed the club to complete the signing of striker Luis Suarez from Liverpool for $128 million.

"The panel found in particular that FC Barcelona had breached the rules regarding the protection of minors and the registration of minors attending football academies," the court said in a statement.

"Accordingly, the FIFA decision is confirmed in full and the sanction remains in force. "In view of the need to issue a decision before the opening of the next transfer window, the panel has issued its decision without the grounds. The full arbitral award, with the reasons for the panel's decision, will be issued as soon as possible."

"The errors that the club might have committed, and which have been recognized and argued before the corresponding authorities, are, in all cases, of an administrative nature and to a large extent have been caused by the existing conflict between the FIFA regulations and Spanish legislation, along with the club's conviction that it was acting correctly," the club said in a statement.

"Therefore, FC Barcelona considers the sanction to be completely disproportionate as it supposes an excessive punishment for the club, when considering its trajectory and the circumstances of this specific case."

Barcelona went on a spending spree in the summer while the suspension was on hold during the appeals process, splashing out more than 117.5 million pounds on Suarez, forward Ivan Rakitic, goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, defender Thomas Vermaelen, goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, defender Jeremy Mathieu and midfielder Alen Halilovic.

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