CAS ruling bans Barcelona from signing any player in 2015

                       
The Court of Arbitration for Sports(CAS) has upheld the decision to ban Barcelona Football Club in the next two transfer windows.

World football governing body, FIFA banned Barcelona for two transfer windows for breaking the rules in signing an under aged player. Barcelona appealed the decision, which saw the ban temporarily lifted until a substantive ruling.

The ruling will see Barcelona not being able to sign a new player in the whole of 2015.

"The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by FC Barcelona against the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) regarding the decision issued by the FIFA Appeals Committee on 19 August 2014," a statement read on CAS' website

"In such decision, the Spanish football club was sanctioned with a transfer ban for two periods, a fine of CHF 450,000 and a reprimand after it was found to have infringed the FIFA regulations with respect to the registration of a number of minor players.

"In appealing to the CAS, FC Barcelona sought to annul the FIFA decision. The parties agreed to an expedited procedure and a hearing was held at the CAS headquarters on 5 December 2014 where the CAS Panel in charge of the matter (Prof. Petros Mavroidis, Greece, (President), Mr Efraim Barak, Israel, and Prof. Ulrich Haas, Germany) heard the parties, their representatives and their witnesses.

"The panel found in particular that FC Barcelona had breached the rules regarding the protection of minors and the registration of minors attending football academies (articles 19 and 19bis of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players). Accordingly, the FIFA decision is confirmed in full and the sanction remains in force.

"In view of the need to issue a decision before the opening of the next transfer window, the Panel has issued its decision without the grounds. The full Arbitral Award, with the reasons for the Panel's decision, will be issued as soon as possible."

Barcelona during the period of their appeal were able to sign players like Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic and Claudio Bravo.