Chelsea football club are planning to mount "the strongest appeal possible" against FIFA-imposed sanctions banning the club from making any signings until January 2011.
The football club - until recently the richest in the UK - will be unable to make any transfer signings in the next two transfer windows after FIFA decided to take severe action against the club for its part in a young player's decision to breach his contract to join the London team.
Chelsea will now take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and although the football club refused to go into detail as to the nature of the appeal, it did say it believes the punishment meted out is "totally disproportionate to the alleged offence".
FIFA decided that the decision of teenage French winger Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with Lens in 2007 had been induced by Chelsea, whom he subsequently joined.
Experts have warned that this may only be the tip of the iceberg, with many other large clubs potentially involved in similar activities.
Writing on his blog, BBC football journalist Phil McNulty said: "If FIFA actually believes Chelsea are the only club guilty of this particular offence in world football, then naivety is being stretched to its furthest point."
Chelsea's position as the UK's richest football club was usurped by Manchester City earlier this year, when a Middle Eastern group took over the club.
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21 October 2010
21 October 2010
21 October 2010
20 October 2010
20 October 2010
