Chelsea and England’s Football Association (FA) are to appeal FIFA sanctions for beaches of its rules on the international transfer of minors, after both were issued with fines and Chelsea was issued with a transfer ban for the next two player registration periods. ‘Chelsea FC categorically refutes the findings of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee and will therefore be appealing the decision’, read a club statement. ‘Initially, Chelsea FC was charged under Articles 19.1 and 19.3 in relation to 92 players. We welcome the fact that FIFA has accepted that there was no breach in relation to 63 of these players, but the club is extremely disappointed that FIFA has not accepted the club’s submissions in relation to the remaining 29 players. Chelsea FC acted in accordance with the relevant regulations and will shortly be submitting its appeal to FIFA.’

As Chelsea’s statement reveals, FIFA charged the club with breaches of Articles 19.1 and 19.3 of its Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players. A FIFA statement outlines that the club was also charged with breaches of Article 18bis ‘in connection with two agreements it concluded concerning minors and which allowed it to influence other clubs in transfer-related matters’. The club was also fined CHF600,000 (€529,000) and was given 90 days to ‘regularise the situation of the minor players concerned’.

Article 19.1 of FIFA’s Regulations prohibits the international transfer of players under the age of 18. Article 19.3 of the Regulations ensure that the entire wording of Article 19 also applies to a player ‘who has never previously been registered with a club, is not a national of the country in which he wishes to be registered for the first time and has not lived continuously for at least the last five years in said country’. 

In other words, Article 19.3 applies the ban on the international transfer of U18 players even if they have never registered with a club, is not a national of the country in which he wishes to be registered for the first time and has not lived for five years in that country. It is understood that the FA has been sanctioned in relation to this Article. FIFA’s statement reveals that the governing body was fined CHF510,000 (€450,000) and was given six months to address the situation concerning the international transfer and ‘first registration’ of minors. The FA told the Daily Telegraph that it would appeal the charge.

Article 19.2 of the FIFA Regulations sets out three exceptions to the ban on the international transfer of U18 players. The first covers situations in which the player’s parents move to the country in which the new club is located for ‘reasons not connected to football’. As such, it has long been unclear how this aspect of the Regulations would apply if, for example, a club were to arrange jobs outside of football for the parents of a promising U18 player. 

The second exception covers transfers between European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) countries, and the player is between 16 and 18. In these cases, the club must provide the player with football and non-football education, and must ensure that the player is looked after ‘in the best possible way’.

The third exception involves when an U18 player lives no further than 50km from a national border, and the club with which the player wishes to be registered is also within 50km of the border (maximum distance between residence and club is 100km). Due to the location of Chelsea in London, over 160km from the French border, this exception would not apply.

Article 18bis of the Regulations prevents clubs from entering into a contract which enables ‘the counter club/counter clubs, and vice versa, or any third party to acquire the ability to influence in employment and transfer-related matters its independence, its policies or the performance of its teams’. It is understood that many of the cases involved short-term traillists at the club’s Academy, who did not go on to sign for Chelsea. The club had argued that there was nothing preventing them from trialling U18 international players, which it maintained is common practice across Europe.