CAS confirm Chelsea appeal of FIFA transfer ban, but not transfer ban freeze

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) have today officially confirmed that Chelsea have filed an appeal against the two-window transfer ban imposed upon the club by FIFA and then subsequently upheld by the FIFA Appeals Committee.

The CAS statement in full is as follows:

Lausanne, 7 June 2019 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has registered an appeal filed by Chelsea Football Club Ltd (CFC) against the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

The appeal is directed against the FIFA Appeal Committee decision dated 11 April 2019 in which CFC was declared liable for violations of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players and banned from registering new players, nationally and internationally, for two entire and consecutive registration periods, fined CHF 600,000, issued with a reprimand and warned on its future conduct.

Generally speaking, CAS appeal arbitration procedures involve an exchange of written submissions between the parties while a Panel of CAS arbitrators is being convened to hear the appeal. Once the Panel has been formally constituted it issues procedural directions, including, inter alia, with respect to the holding of a hearing. Following the hearing, if one is held (a CAS Panel may also issue a decision based only on the parties’ written submissions), the Panel deliberates and then issues its decision in the form of an Arbitral Award.

It is not possible to say at this time when the Arbitral Award will be issued.

CAS will not provide any further information in relation to this procedure, except to issue a Media Release announcing the Panel’s decision.

However, as discussed before, the appeal of the transfer ban doesn’t automatically freeze the transfer ban itself. Chelsea would have to submit a separate request for that, which apparently we have not done. This was confirmed by CAS to Football.London this morning as well.

“For a challenged decision to be stayed during the CAS proceedings, a specific request to this effect must be made. At the time of writing (June 7), a request has not been filed in the Chelsea/FIFA matter. Accordingly, the FIFA decision remains in force.”

-CAS statement; source: Football.London

As reported earlier this week, Chelsea's hesitance to ask for the appeal to be frozen stems from the fear that the ban could be extended to three windows, instead of just two, if the appeal is deemed frivolous — i.e. just a ploy to circumvent the punishment by signing as many players in the one window as possible. (Ed.note: which it certainly would be.)

And so, the status quo remains. Chelsea could still file for the ban to be frozen — and CAS could decide to freeze it of their own accord as well — but neither of those possibilities are looking likely at the moment.

Roll on, transfer ban!