The World’s soccer governing body, FIFA has banned English Premier League club, Chelsea from signing new players for the next two transfer windows.
FIFA said on Friday that the ban was imposed on the Blues as punishment for breaking rules on registering of under-age players.
With the development, the London club will be unable to make new signings until the end of January 2020.
“The Disciplinary Committee sanctioned Chelsea with a ban on registering new players at both national and international level for the next two complete and consecutive registration periods,” FIFA said in a statement.
According to the statement, the Club in addition, was also fined 600,000 Swiss francs ($600,000 or 530,000 Euros) and given a period of 90 days to regularise the situation involving the minor players concerned.
However, it the ban does not prevent players being released by the club and it does not apply to Chelsea’s women’s and futsal teams.
The Club has three days to appeal against FIFA’s decision and the move follows a FIFA probe into Chelsea’s signing of foreign under-18 players, including the club’s former forward Bertrand Traore, a Burkina Faso international who now plays for French Ligue 1 club Lyon.
Traore signed professional forms for Chelsea in 2013 at the age of 18 but was not registered until January the following year.
French website Mediapart, quoting documents from Football Leaks, reported that FIFA had scrutinised 19 Chelsea signings.
Mediapart reported that FIFA found evidence that Chelsea had supplied misleading information about Traore’s signing and that he had made more than 20 appearances for the club at different age levels despite not being registered by the Football Association.
FIFA said Friday it was also fining the Football Association 510,000 Swiss francs for breaking the rules on signing minors.
The world governing body gave the FA a period of six months to update its processes concerning international transfers and the registration of minors.
