Highest governing body of football, FIFA, has lifted the transfer ban placed on english club, Chelsea FC.
Following Chelsea’s appeal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has finally reduced the ban by half as they are now free to sign players in January.
CAS said they found Chelsea guilty of breaching two of its regulations on player transfers, specifically regarding bringing in U18s and ‘third-party influence’ but “for a significantly smaller number of players (about 1/3 of the violations found by FIFA)”.
Chelsea’s fine has also been halved from £460,000 to £230,000.
“The following sanctions have now been imposed by the CAS: Chelsea is banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally for one entire registration period, which the club already served during the 2019 summer registration period,” CAS said in a statement.
“Chelsea is ordered to pay a fine to FIFA of the amount of 300,000 Swiss Francs. The warning and the reprimand are confirmed.”
FIFA handed down a two-window transfer ban to Chelsea in February of this year and rejected Chelsea’s appeal against the punishment in April.
Chelsea served the first window of their ban in the summer but made a further appeal at the CAS last month, who accepted submissions about the case from the club as well as FIFA.
Despite also losing star player Eden Hazard in the summer, Chelsea started the season well under new head coach, Frank Lampard, who has used the punishment to help bring through young players.
