Barcelona ban,now Real Madrid face transfer ban

News from Spain that following Barcelona's transfer ban being upheld earlier this year Real Madrid could be facing a similar ban on signing new players.

Barcelona ban,now Real Madrid face transfer ban


FIFA have started an investigation into the Madrid club signing under-age players. Spanish sports paper AS claim the investigation includes the signing of two 12-year-olds from Venezuela in 2012. FIFA wrote to |Real Madrid on December 14th 2014 asking them for their response and giving them a month to comply.

Manuel Godoy and Fernando Macías were being scouted by other clubs at the time but were signed by Real Madrid through Miguel Ángel Coira. He is a former Argentine footballer now living in Spain who owns a football school in Madrid for young players.

Coira, who is now with Rayo Vallecano, had his relationship with Real Madrid terminated by the club who also terminated their relationship with Godoy. FIFA rules say a player under 18 can only be signed from outside the European Union only if their parents have been forced to move to the country where the club is for non-football reasons, unless the club has made them available for transfer.

Real Madrid sign underage players from around the world including South Korea, Angola, Japan and Cameroon. However in these cases it seems the suggestion is that they don't sign them as Real Madrid players but to other clubs or football schools in and around Madrid, 22 affiliated clubs could be involved.

Takuhiro Nakai, an 11-year-old was signed from Azul Siga in Japan, and Paulo Lubamba, a 12-year-old Angolan from Chorrillo, a club on the outskirts of Madrid.

An unnamed club has been asked by FIFA to define it's relationship with the UEFA Champions League winners and provide details of how many under-age players it has signed in the last 5 years and subsequently transferred to Real Madrid.

VI. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS INVOLVING MINORS

Article 19 Protection of minors
1. International transfers of players are only permitted if the player is over the age of 18.

2. The following three exceptions to this rule apply:
a) The player’s parents move to the country in which the new club is located for reasons not linked to football;
b) The transfer takes place within the territory of the European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) and the player is aged between 16 and 18. In this case, the new club must fulfil the following minimum obligations:
 i) It shall provide the player with an adequate football education and/or training in line with the highest national standards.
 ii) It shall guarantee the player an academic and/or school and/or vocational education and/or training, in addition to his football education and/or training, which will allow the player to pursue a career other than football should he cease playing professional football.
 iii) It shall make all necessary arrangements to ensure that the player is looked after in the best possible way (optimum living standards with a host family or in club accommodation, appointment of a mentor at the club, etc.).
 iv) It shall, on registration of such a player, provide the relevant association with proof that it is complying with the aforementioned obligations;
c) The player lives no further than 50km from a national border and the club with which the player wishes to be registered in the neighbouring association is also within 50km of that border. The maximum distance between the player’s domicile and the club’s headquarters shall be 100km. In such cases, the player must continue to live at home and the two associations concerned must give their explicit consent.

3. The conditions of this article shall also apply to any player who has never previously been registered with a club and is not a national of the country in which he wishes to be registered for the first time.

4. Each association shall ensure the respect of this provision by its clubs.

5. The Players’ Status Committee shall be competent to decide on any dispute arising in relation to these matters and shall impose appropriate sanctions in the event of violations of this provision.


Emilio Butragueño, Real Madrid director of institutional relations spoke with AS and said the club had done nothing wrong.

“First, we agree with Fifa on the issue. We’ll continue to work with them in everything they ask of us. We are absolutely comfortable with Real Madrid’s behaviour.”

There will be plenty of Spurs fans who would like to see any improprieties brought to light.