Chelsea’s ban on signing new players until 2011 as punishment for their conduct in the signing of Gael Kakuta from Lens has garnered little sympathy around the footballing world. The club has been perceived as playing fast and loose with the rules on signing young players for some time now, with a number of signings from other clubs coming via the tribunal system, although Frank Arnesen’s expensively assembled youth squad has yet to produce any serious return from its investments.
Whilst Chelsea deserve their punishment, the matter does raise concerns about consistency. If this is going to be FIFA’s approach to such illegal approaches, why have they not unveiled them before now for more offences? Other teams have committed similar or worse offences, and have escaped with lesser punishments.
If this is an indication of a new, hard-line approach, then that is fair enough, but were clubs warned that there was a new system in place, that would hit them so hard? It is not a question of sympathy for Chelsea, but one of consistency. Many such offences go on throughout the footballing world on a regular basis. Will FIFA stick to its guns and use this punishment in other such cases? If it does not, it will appear to be picking on the English side. If it does, there will be a lot of clubs around Europe with a signings ban in place. How far are FIFA willing to take this, and will their resolve stand up to each new case?
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