Real Madrid have had their two transfer window ban on singing new players reduced to one allowing them to make new signings next summer.
The Club World Champions had been banned from signing new players during the upcoming January 2017 transfer window and the transfer window next summer, but the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) has overturned FIFA’s verdict reducing the sentence.
This ruling will have a huge impact on Real Madrid’s want-away midfielder James Rodriguez. The Spanish side were refusing to listen to offers for a player whose buy-out clause is set at €500million. But being able to buy again in the summer of 2017 may see them allow him to go out on loan this January so that he can shop-window himself with a view to a permanent exit at the end of the season.
A Real Madrid statement released on Tuesday read:
‘CAS has informed Real Madrid today of its decision to partially uphold the appeal against the resolution imposed by FIFA that prohibited the club from registering new players in two transfer windows, reducing it to one, corresponding with the transfer window of January 2017.’
It seems pressure applied on new FIFA head Gianni Infantino from Real Madrid and their law firm Pinto Ruiz & Del Valle has paid dividends.
FIFA originally banned Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid from registering new signings for two transfer windows in January 2016 as punishment for breaching its rules on the international transfer and registration of players aged under-18.
The two clubs appealed the decision meaning the ban was suspended in the summer with both clubs able to sign players. FIFA then upheld the ban last September but Real Madrid appealed to the CAS.
The original sanctions against the Madrid clubs followed investigations concerning under-age players who participated in competitions with the clubs over various periods between 2007 and 2014 in the case of Atletico Madrid and between 2005 and 2014 in the case of Real Madrid.
