FIFA imposes Real Madrid and Atletico transfer ban

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have been handed a transfer ban by FIFA on Thursday which will prevent the clubs from the Spanish capital from making any signings in the next two windows, instead having to wait until January 2018.

Like Barcelona before them, Los Blancos and Los Colchoneros have the option of appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in a bid that would buy the clubs time and allow them to delay the ban until the summer of 2017 and thus make use of the upcoming January window.

The ban is the same one the Catalan club faced for not obeying rules regarding foreign-born youth players playing at their respective academies.

Initially imposed by FIFA’s disciplinary committee in January, the bans were temporarily lifted pending appeals later the same month, allowing them to sign players in the transfer window which ended last month.

A statement said the Appeal Committee had decided to ‘confirm in their entirety the decisions rendered by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee in the respective cases relating to the protection of minors,’ according to Reuters.