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English Premier League club Chelsea have been fined and hit with
a ban on registering players until January 2011 by world football's
ruling body FIFA as punishment for their role in a contractual
dispute.
The sanction follows a decision by FIFA's Dispute Resolution
Chamber (DRC), which met on August 27 to rule on a contractual
dispute opposing French first division club Lens to French player
Gael Kakuta and London giants Chelsea.
The DRC found Kakuta guilty of breach of contract and also found
Chelsea guilty of inducing the player to break his contract with
the French club, which had lodged a claim with FIFA seeking
compensation and demanding sporting sanctions both on the player
and Chelsea.
A statement from FIFA said the DRC "found that the player had
indeed breached a contract signed with the French club".
"Equally, the DRC deemed it to be established that the English
club induced the player to such a breach."
As well as paying 780,000 euros in compensation to Lens, for
which Chelsea are jointly liable, Kakuta has been sanctioned in
accordance with article 17, paragraph 3 and 4 of the Regulations on
the Status and Transfer of Players.
He has been effectively banned from playing in official matches
for four months.
The statement added: "Chelsea are banned from registering any
new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two next
entire and consecutive registration periods following the
notification of the present decision.
"Furthermore, the club, Chelsea, have to pay Lens training
compensation in the amount of 130,000 euros."
The next transfer window is on January 1-31, 2010 with the next
opportunity to register new players after that coming at the end of
the current season until August 31 (Europe) and Sept 1 (Britain)
2010.
An offensive midfielder with Chelsea's reserve team, Kakuta is
believed to be a future star of the London club's senior side and
after the 2007/2008 season was voted 'Scholar of the Year' by staff
at the Chelsea Academy.
Described by Chelsea as a "highly-skilled left footed player who
likes taking players on", Kakuta was a part of the France under-17
side that were beaten finalists in the European Championships last
May.
Although no provision was made for such a move in FIFA's
statement, Chelsea may be expected take any future appeal to the
highest sports court in the world, the Lausanne-based Court of
Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
