Chelsea Banned from Making Transfer Until 2011

Under the table arrangements usually have a way of blowing up in your face. The Times of London reports:

Fifa have banned Chelsea from signing any new players in the next two transfer windows after they were found guilty of inducing a teenage French player to breach his contract with Lens.

The decision means that the Premier League club will not be able to add to their squad until January 2011 as a result of their conduct in the transfer of Gael Kakuta, a France youth international, in 2007.

Fifa has also ordered the English club to pay Lens compensation of €130,000 (about £113,500) and fined the player €780,000 (about £682,000), a payment for which world football’s ruling body said that Chelsea are “jointly and severally liable”.

There is a precedent for this type of punishment. In 2005, Roma received a similar punishment, which was subsequently reduced to just a single transfer window. So there is some hope for Chelsea, which will almost certainly appeal the decision.