Barcelona receive two window transfer embargo

You'd imagine Puyol will stay for another year and Valdes too (unless the Ter Stegen deal goes through)

Eight Ball

Hopefully this gets overturned as I really like Barcelona as a club.

bad2dabone

Eight Ball wrote: »

Hopefully this gets overturned as I really like Barcelona as a club.

they're more than a club.

apparently.

EuropeanSon

Eight Ball wrote: »

Hopefully this gets overturned as I really like Barcelona as a club.

You like the media image of Barcelona as a club.

This sort of thing and the Neymar deal reveals a bit about what Barcelona are really like as a club.

EuropeanSon

I'd love if this happened to Bayern, PSG, Real, City and Chelsea too. Give the clubs that haven't thrown money around a decent chance to catch up a bit.

(I'm fully aware this is unreasonable, just think it'd be a good thing for football, and Arsenal obviously)

ArmaniJeanss

NTMK wrote: »

Switzerland is included as a common travel zone iirc and the kids mother is Swizz/italian so as long as hes over 16 the move is legal

RasTa wrote: »

Pretty sure the Swiss or any EEA country don't need a visa to work in the EU or UK anyway.

Dammit, had a pleasant 10 minutes there thinking of MUFC having to build a team around Tom Cleverly.

LuckyLloyd

You'd have to give credit to Barca for how they've marketed themselves. More than a club is right. A uniquely classless, cynical and cheating club. The Unicef rubbish was grim stuff really. Hopefully there is a firm stand firm against the appeal.

pickarooney

NTMK wrote: »

Switzerland is included as a common travel zone iirc and the kids mother is Swizz/italian so as long as hes over 16 the move is legal

Didn't they vote to change that last month?

Timmyctc

Mas que un club

wandatowell

Delighted for them.

Shocked to see FIFA take such a stance against them.

Hopefully it will herald a new era for football but FIFA are as corrupt as sin (imo) so this will be overturned on appeal.

Barca will have plenty of time to get their house in order.

SeantheMan

Not seen it posted anywhere, but in case anyone was wondering...the 3 cases where you CAN sign an under-18

Fifa rules state that international transfers are only permitted for players over the age of 18 - unless the player in question meets one of three qualifying criteria.
Under-18s can move to a club in a different country if their parents move there for non-footballing reasons, if they are from another nation within the European Union or European Economic Area and aged between 16 and 18, or if they live within 100km of the club.

Also, Ter Stegen's agent has confirmed he can't go to Barca now

http://www.goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2014/04/02/4726341/ter-stegens-agent-barcelona-deal-cannot-go-through-now?ICID=HP_TS_1

Barcelona's Official repsonse for the appeal is as follows

Following the sanction imposed by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on FC Barcelona (FCB) for offenses involving the transfer and registration of players under 18, FCB would like to make the following points:

1-According to the official statement released by FIFA, the Royal Spanish Football Federation has also been sanctioned the transfer of international minors.

2-The statute that FCB allegedly infringed upon is intended to protect minors from the actions of sports clubs that incorporate players without ensuring the required attention necessary for proper development, FCB itself does guarantee the development of its players through the model of La Masia.

3-La Masia’s model incorporates educational training programs, accommodation, meals, medical care, attention to the needs of children and sports development plans. FCB forms people before athletes, a fact that has not been considered by FIFA, which applies a penalty criterion that ignores the educational function of our training program.

4-All FCB players have always had their federal licenses as required by the respective federations. All of them at all times.

5-Some of the players affected by FIFA’s ruling have even been called up by the Catalan Football Federation to participate in the regional championships with the Catalan team.

6-Since this process was started by FIFA, the federation licenses held by the affected players have been withdrawn and they have not featured in official matches. Thus, there has been no non-regulatory participation in athletic endeavours by any of the aforementioned players.

7-FC Barcelona has not breached any civil law and all children who train at La Masia are legal residents in the country.

8-Players whose federal licenses have been nullified by FIFA have had the option of continuing in the Club, which is committed to ensuring their education, in order to avoid social harm, despite the fact that they are banned from featuring for FCB.

9-No player of FCB is in an administrative irregular situation.

10-FCB has communicated the need to revise the regulations intended to protect minors on various occasions to FIFA. The intent is to make said regulations more effective.

11-FCB’s development model has always received the express recognition of FIFA, La Masia has always been used as an example of good practice.

12-FCB’s candidates for the Ballon d'Or is an example of FIFA’s recognition of our sports training and development procedures.

13-FCB’s training model aids the families of many players to integrate into society.

14-In Catalonia alone it is estimated that 15,000 underage players born outside of Spain and registered with their federation who, according to the criteria used in this case by FIFA, would have to be considered to be in a similarly unauthorised state.


For all the above mentioned reasons, FCB will be presenting the corresponding appeal to FIFA and should it be necessary, take the resulting resolution to the Tribunal d’Arbitratge de ‘Esport (TAS). FCB will also demand the relevant interim measures needed to preserve the Club’s rights, amongst which are those along to it to sign players in transfer windows.

Turtwig

Interesting Barca statement. Understood that better than I did FIFA's somewhat convoluted statement. I like bullet points.

gosplan

Jernal wrote: »

Interesting Barca statement. Understood that better than I did FIFA's somewhat convoluted statement. I like bullet points.

They didn't in any way challenge it though, just made a load of points about how great they are to kids.

I liked the bit about providing meals - mes que un club.

The overall tone seems to be - 'we're Barca and amazing, this rule shouldn't apply'

miralize

The Club broke the rules, but they did not violate the purpose of the rules (protecting minors), so this will look favourably to a court reviewing the case.

gimmick

When this is overturned I think this little corner of the internet will melt with the fury. It will be utterly hilarious the accusations of corruption etc that will be made.

Mes que un club indeed they will shout.

CSF

gimmick wrote: »

When this is overturned I think this little corner of the internet will melt with the fury. It will be utterly hilarious the accusations of corruption etc that will be made.

Mes que un club indeed they will shout.

I can't figure out if through your multiple layers of sarcasm you're saying that Barca are not corrupt and if you are I'm just heavily confused as to how you have come to that conclusion.

EuropeanSon

miralize wrote: »

The Club broke the rules, but they did not violate the purpose of the rules (protecting minors), so this will look favourably to a court reviewing the case.

They say they didn't.

Of course, FIFA could reasonably claim that the purpose of the rules is to avoid young players uprooting their entire lives and moving countries because a big club entices them with promises of glory which come true far less often than they don't. Which is something it'd be almost impossible to deny that Barcelona do.

gimmick

CSF wrote: »

I can't figure out if through your multiple layers of sarcasm you're saying that Barca are not corrupt and if you are I'm just heavily confused as to how you have come to that conclusion.

Football is a corrupt sport. Top to bottom. Barca are no different than any other club out there. They were just arrogant enough to think they would not get caught.

It will most likely get overturned on appeal though and the internet will melt. But people will accuse them of further corruption, brown enveloopes etc, if it is.

bucketybuck

2-The statute that FCB allegedly infringed upon is intended to protect minors from the actions of sports clubs that incorporate players without ensuring the required attention necessary for proper development, FCB itself does guarantee the development of its players through the model of La Masia.

The arrogance is quite staggering. Its the equivalent of a politician stopped for drink driving:
"The drink driving laws are there to keep other road users safe, but I am a safe driver so I shouldn't be prosecuted for drink driving. After all, nobody got hurt."

I don't expect the sanctions will stand but hopefully FIFA will have some backbone this time. And I hope even more that the Barcelona use of PED's will soon start to be properly investigated.

LuckyLloyd

gimmick wrote: »

Football is a corrupt sport. Top to bottom. Barca are no different than any other club out there. They were just arrogant enough to think they would not get caught.

It will most likely get overturned on appeal though and the internet will melt. But people will accuse them of further corruption, brown enveloopes etc, if it is.

So every club has flouted this rule? Every club has been involved in a deal like the Neymar deal? I know you don't believe that but anyway.

I will be highly impressed if Barca manage to come out the other side of this one with a 'we are the underdogs and the system is against us' chip on their shoulder. That would be more than a club stuff indeed.

Jelle1880

bucketybuck wrote: »

The arrogance is quite staggering. Its the equivalent of a politician stopped for drink driving:
"The drink driving laws are there to keep other road users safe, but I am a safe driver so I shouldn't be prosecuted for drink driving. After all, nobody got hurt."

I don't expect the sanctions will stand but hopefully FIFA will have some backbone this time. And I hope even more that the Barcelona use of PED's will soon start to be properly investigated.

Any proof of that, apart from Real-fans crying about Messi being given perfectly legal growth stimulating hormones ?

And I fail to see how that is arrogance. It's a fact that if young players get enrolled in La Masia they get a good education and professional guidance on and off the pitch, it's a valid argument from Barca's side. The law is in place to prevent systematic abuse by football clubs by bringing young, easily influenced kids to another country and when they don't succeed leaving them to fend for themselves (as has happend with countless African players).

Timmyctc

Jelle1880 wrote: »

Any proof of that, apart from Real-fans crying about Messi being given perfectly legal growth stimulating hormones ?

And I fail to see how that is arrogance. It's a fact that if young players get enrolled in La Masia they get a good education and professional guidance on and off the pitch, it's a valid argument from Barca's side. The law is in place to prevent systematic abuse by football clubs by bringing young, easily influenced kids to another country and when they don't succeed leaving them to fend for themselves (as has happend with countless African players).

Just read through Giggs_Boson's articles about it.
Compiliation of some of his thoughts on it here. He usually references and posts others articles on the matter on his twitter etc too
http://www.barcaforum.com/showthread.php/10875-Doping-in-Football

When you say professional guidance on the pitch is that to act like a diving cheating, invisible card brandishing, turning-on-the-sprinklers-when-we-lose mentality or a different one entirely? Just out of interest?

EuropeanSon

Jelle1880 wrote: »

Any proof of that, apart from Real-fans crying about Messi being given perfectly legal growth stimulating hormones ?

And I fail to see how that is arrogance. It's a fact that if young players get enrolled in La Masia they get a good education and professional guidance on and off the pitch, it's a valid argument from Barca's side. The law is in place to prevent systematic abuse by football clubs by bringing young, easily influenced kids to another country and when they don't succeed leaving them to fend for themselves (as has happend with countless African players).

There would be quite a lot of suspicion on Madrid too, given that they were implicated in the Fuentes saga too. I think it's unlikely that all that evidence was "disappeared" to keep people from investigating Osasuna or somebody.

gimmick

Pretty sure that if anyone from any club were taking PEDs they would have been caught by a piss test at this stage.

EuropeanSon

gimmick wrote: »

Pretty sure that if anyone from any club were taking PEDs they would have been caught by a piss test at this stage.

Hardly. Testing in football isn't very good, and a lot of things only show up in blood tests anyway.

bucketybuck

Jelle1880 wrote: »

And I fail to see how that is arrogance. It's a fact that if young players get enrolled in La Masia they get a good education and professional guidance on and off the pitch, it's a valid argument from Barca's side.

The only fact here is that they operated outside the laws of the game. When you break a law you generally don't get to cry that it shouldn't apply to you because of whatever reason. Cue every other club doing what they want under the pretence that they also have a centre of excellence that looks after the kids.

Its not a valid argument at all, any more than the drink driver arguing that he was perfectly safe driving while drunk.

gimmick

bucketybuck wrote: »

Its not a valid argument at all, any more than the drink driver arguing that he was perfectly safe driving while drunk.

Sure that argument is specious at best. not like lives are being endangered. Quite the opposite. The youngsters get to study the game as well as get a proper education should their football career fall apart.

I think that is why the say Mes Que Un Club tbh because they offer scholarships.

Jelle1880

Timmyctc wrote: »

Just read through Giggs_Boson's articles about it.
Compiliation of some of his thoughts on it here. He usually references and posts others articles on the matter on his twitter etc too
http://www.barcaforum.com/showthread.php/10875-Doping-in-Football

When you say professional guidance on the pitch is that to act like a diving cheating, invisible card brandishing, turning-on-the-sprinklers-when-we-lose mentality or a different one entirely? Just out of interest?

That's hardly proof.

Players may have improved drastically on their levels of fitness and stamina, but so have the training methods.

I'm also pretty sure there is doping in football, just like in probably every competitive sport. Yet thinking it happens is not even close to having proof.

As for your last part of the post, biased much ?

With professional guidance I meant that outside their football training they get an academic education and they have people assisting in their day to day life outside the pitch.

GLaDOS

The fact that Barca seem to treat the youngsters well doesn't change the fact they were getting a sporting advantage over clubs that were obeying the law.

bad2dabone

gimmick wrote: »

Pretty sure that if anyone from any club were taking PEDs they would have been caught by a piss test at this stage.

that's an incredibly naive thing to think!

testing is a joke in football, and masking techniques are so far advanced for relatively poorly funded sports like cycling i'd imagine that if a football team were doping they'd have no difficulty hiding it.