Fifa bans Chelsea

ZURICH – Chelsea have been banned by FIFA from registering new signings until January 2011 after being found guilty of inducing a player to break his contract with another club.

‘Chelsea are banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the next two entire and consecutive registration periods (transfer windows),’ FIFA said in a statement on Thursday.The English Premier League club described the ruling as ‘extraordinarily arbitrary’ and ‘totally disproportionate’ and said they would appeal.The decision is a crushing blow for Chelsea. The next window is in January followed by another in the middle of 2010.The punishment was handed out by world soccer’s governing body following a contractual dispute involving the transfer of reserve team player Gael Kakuta from Racing Lens in 2007.Following a complaint from Lens, FIFA’s dispute resolution chamber ruled Kakuta, now 18, had breached his contract with the French club and that Chelsea had induced him to do so.The player was ordered to pay 780,000 euros ($1.11 million) compensation, which FIFA said Chelsea were ‘jointly liable’ for, and he was given a four-month ban from competitive matches. – Nampa-AFP