Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have been banned by FIFA from registering players in the next two transfer windows.

The Madrid giants have been found guilty of breaching Articles 5, 9, 19, 19bis and Annexes 2 and 3 of the Regulations on the status and transfer of players. These rules involve the international transfers of players under the age of 18. The clubs have also been fined with Atletico due to pay £622,000 and Real set to pay £249,000 as part of the punishment. Both have been given 90 days to resolve these breaches or face further punishment.

Real beat Atletico in the 2014 Champions League Final (Bleacher Report)
Real beat Atletico in the 2014 Champions League Final (Bleacher Report)

The Madrid giants aren't the first La Liga sides to have been punished for this offence with Barcelona previously being found guilty in April 2014. The Catalan giants appealed the initial decision which enabled them to sign players in the summer transfer window. They spent heavily to allow for the ban and brought in Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic, Claudio Bravo, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Jeremy Mathieu, Douglas, Thomas Vermaelen and Rafinha, with some of them playing a key role in Barcelona's success last season. Barca's appeal failed and they were eventually banned from registering players during the January 2015 and summer 2015 windows.

Atletico Madrid have already announced their intention to appeal the ban and although Real Madrid have yet to comment they did release a statement last year when FIFA first announced they were investigating the club which strongly denied any wrongdoing so it is likely they will also appeal. However, with five and a half months to go until the transfer window closes it remains to be seen whether the appeal will have been heard by the time the window opens which means there is a chance Real and Atletico only have the remainder of this window to bring in any players they want before the summer of 2017.

What does the transfer ban mean?

The Madrid giants have a number of players on loan at other clubs but they will not suffer as a consequence of the ban. Once their loan deals expire they can go back to their parent clubs as long as no money changes hands. 

Both clubs have strong squads as it stands but Atletico may be in a slightly better position to deal with the ban as they have spent a lot of money investing in young, talented players. Real on the other hand have an older squad and it had been expected they would spend heavily this summer to give Zinedine Zidane the squad he wants to challenge for honours. 

Attention will now turn to the likelyhood of any appeals being heard before the transfer window opens in July but with the potential that neither side will be able to register players for 18 months it could make for an interesting final two weeks of the January transfer window. 

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Gerry Johnston
Cover Spanish and Italian football for VAVEL UK.