Chelsea surprised and dismayed by “astonishing” FIFA transfer ruling

Just few hours after FIFA denied Chelsea’s request to freeze the transfer sanction during the process of the appeal, the club have issued a statement expressing their surprise and astonishment at being treated differently than other clubs that have gone through the same process.

Here is what Chelsea issued with respect to FIFA’s decision:

Chelsea Football Club is astonished by the FIFA Appeal Committee’s decision not to suspend its sanction pending completion of the appeal process.

The club acted in accordance with the relevant regulations and has already notified FIFA of its intention to appeal against the Disciplinary Committee’s decision and sanction. As a matter of procedural fairness and equality of treatment, and Swiss law, the Club’s right to an appeal process must be afforded, before any irremediable sanction takes effect.

So far as the Club is aware, in all previous cases where a registration ban has been imposed by FIFA, a decision has also been made to suspend the sanction until the appeal process has been completed. In this case, Chelsea considers that it is being treated inconsistently in comparison with other European clubs.

We will consider our next steps once we have received the written reasons for this decision from FIFA. The Club notes the Appeal Committee’s statement that it has the right to appeal to CAS. In the meantime the Club will continue to fully cooperate with the proceedings.

Source: Chelsea FC

The club’s disbelief with what has transpired is clearly justified as in all the previous cases which included similar punishment against Spanish clubs, the sanction was frozen while they appealed against the allegations, allowing those clubs to strengthen during that period before the transfer ban actually came into effect.

Hence, by denying Chelsea’s appeal to freeze the sanction, FIFA is ignoring all precedents that they set, even if it’s a blatant exploitation of the loophole of the system they created and previously followed.

What’s left for Chelsea? Well, as the last paragraph of the statement indicates, Chelsea do have the right to appeal to CAS and as things stand, the club very well may have to do that.

Meanwhile, here are live pictures of Chelsea HQ after the decision: