They were hit with a transfer ban on Friday morning
Chelsea have announced that they will appeal Fifa's decision to give them a
transfer ban across two windows.
Fifa hit them with the ban on Friday morning after they found the club to have breached rules regarding the international transfer and registration of players under the age of 18. They were also hit with a £460,00 fine.
Chelsea have since released this statement following the news: "Chelsea FC has today received a decision from the FIFA Disciplinary Committee concerning alleged breaches of the FIFA Regulations that relate to the international transfer of players under the age of 18.
"The decision imposes a transfer ban of two consecutive registration periods and a fine of 600k Swiss francs. Chelsea FC categorically refutes the findings of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee and will therefore be appealing the decision.
"The club wishes to emphasise that it respects the important work undertaken by FIFA in relation to the protection of minors and has fully cooperated with FIFA throughout its investigation.
"Initially, Chelsea FC was charged under Articles 19.1 and 19.3 in relation to 92 players. We welcome the fact that FIFA has accepted that there was no breach in relation to 63 of these players, but the club is extremely disappointed that FIFA has not accepted the club’s submissions in relation to the remaining 29 players.
"Chelsea FC acted in accordance with the relevant regulations and will shortly be submitting its appeal to FIFA."
The club's response comes after Fifa's statement explained that: "Chelsea was found to have breached art. 19 of the Regulations in the case of twenty-nine (29) minor players and to have committed several other infringements relating to registration requirements for players.
"The club also breached art. 18bis of the Regulations in connection with two agreements it concluded concerning minors and which allowed it to influence other clubs in transfer-related matters.
