Chelsea have asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to suspend their ban on registering players until after the appeal has been decided. This could mean that Chelsea will be able to sign players in January if the appeal hasn’t been finalised by then.
Chelsea believe that they have enough evidence to get the transfer ban by FIFA overturned, according to a report in todays News of The World.
I have just found this article from the Press association, which states that Chelsea are not even allowed to recall their players from loan agreements with other clubs, despite not being able to buy any replacements in the January transfer window.
The FIFA ban on Chelsea buying any new players is to be appealed by the club, but it has been revealed by Matthieu Reeb, secretary general for the Court of Arbitration for Sport, that the result may not be decided until just before Christmas.
The ex-Chelsea winger Arjen Robben is feeling sorry for his old club, and thinks that they will struggle because they can’t sign any new players.
Chelsea have gone to the trouble to issue an official response to the decision by CAS to reject Adrian Mutu’s appeal. Here is the statement in full, published on their website:
The ongoing case of Chelsea v Adrian Mutu has finally reached a conclusion, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport has decided that he must pay the full £14.6m compensation owed to his old club.
It is likely that Chelsea are going to be awarded £13.68m in compensation from Adrian Mutu on Friday when the final ruling on his appeal will be announced.
