How will Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid's transfer bans affect Chelsea?

On Thursday, FIFA sanctioned two more La Liga sides over the international transfers of minors. Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid were each handed the same two-window ban given to FC Barcelona, for committing very similar infractions.

For Chelsea, this is probably both good and bad news, with that varying from situation to situation. On the positive news side, Real Madrid is always a competitor in the transfer market (Atletico can be as well), and having Los Blancos (as well as Los Rojiblancos) lose the ability to register new players for several windows should give Chelsea a bit of an advantage in signing some of their targets.

On the other hand, the Blues have been frequent shoppers at The Calderon over the past several seasons, and have been linked to quite a few Atletico players during the past several windows. With the Madrid side losing the ability to sign replacements for any departures over the summer or next January, it would seem logical that they'd be a bit less likely to allow anyone to leave, without being forced to due to a release clause being met.

Fortunately, the fact that Spanish law requires all La Liga players to have a release clause means that Chelsea can still raid those clubs, should the player be itching for a move. Unfortunately, this means that many players at those clubs will be receiving hefty raises, in return for increasing those clauses enough to ward off interest from abroad.

In addition to shopping for players, Chelsea have been linked quite heavily to Diego Simeone, who continues to state that he's planning to remain in Madrid. It's unclear whether or not this ban will change his thinking. The Blues would still have to meet his release clause in order to make a move happen, but there's a fair chance that he's now a bit more open to the idea than he was 48 hours ago.

Regardless, Real have already confirmed that they'll appeal the FIFA decision, and I'd have to think that Atletico will do exactly the same. Given the amount of time that process took for Barcelona, I'd be legitimately surprised if these bans are actually a factor before next January, giving both sides plenty of time to reinforce, and restructure the contracts of players that would be targets abroad.