Spanish FA, FC Barcelona sanctioned for international transfers of minors

[FCBarca]

As has already been discussed elsewhere, the spirit of the law is well intentioned but the application is arbitrary and in the case of Barcelona, excessive...La Masia is a model and all we have to do is look at the graduates

 

[darthvader7888]

On the bright side: We are not getting David Luiz. Thank you, Fifa.

Don't worry, we'll panic buy him for 50m while FIFA are making a decision on our appeal

 

[ThwiX]

Don't worry, we'll panic buy him for 50m while FIFA are making a decision on our appeal

I wouldn't even be mad. That's how much we desperately need a CB.

 

[BarçAjax8]

Don't worry, we'll panic buy him for 50m while FIFA are making a decision on our appeal

lol damn isn't that the truth

 

[XaviMessiGirl]

Don't worry, we'll panic buy him for 50m while FIFA are making a decision on our appeal

I know this is a silly overused "joke" most of the time, but if we do get to buy players this summer through the appeals process, I'm sure all clubs who try to deal with us will up the asking price even more than they already would, because the desperation on our part will have doubled. So I definitely wouldn't be surprised if we massively overpay for everyone we buy. Nor will I be surprised if the "sugar daddy" clubs come in & meddle with our targets once again.

The allegations against us are one thing, but perhaps a more frustrating part is that the club let the depth of the squad get so bad that not being able to make transfers for a year would hurt us this much. Honestly, as soon as we knew that Muniesa & Fontas would never make it to the first team, we should have been out there looking for someone else who could make it. It's been clear for a couple years now that Puyol wasn't getting any younger. And Valdes was at least kind enough to give us over a year to find a replacement goalkeeper - we could have bought Ter Stegen last summer & loaned him back to Gladbach for a year, for example. But instead we mucked about with Neymar & had no care for getting anything else done.

 

[darthvader7888]

I know this is a silly overused "joke" most of the time, but if we do get to buy players this summer through the appeals process, I'm sure all clubs who try to deal with us will up the asking price even more than they already would, because the desperation on our part will have doubled. So I definitely wouldn't be surprised if we massively overpay for everyone we buy. Nor will I be surprised if the "sugar daddy" clubs come in & meddle with our targets once again.

If I were the board, I'd add next summer's transfer budget to this summer's one. It'd help with the jacked up prices, and there's a good chance that we'll be able to buy players this summer but not next summer.

Btw, imagine if we panic buy Luiz for 50m and then FIFA accept our appeal

 

[XaviMessiGirl]

Yeah, that would royally suck, but hey, what else are we supposed to do at this point? Again, it's what they get for letting it get this bad.

 

[frog-fcb]

If our appeal is sucsessful would that then mean the players licenses will be re intstated so they can play again

 

[PrRan]

This is à problem, but we can manage for a year. I only hope the ter stegen deal can go trough. I'd say sell song and tello, bring rafinha and deleufeu back and ask puyol to stay 1 more year as backup cb( he has almost 5 months to recover till the new season) we can stil win enough.

 

[dakt]

You know what is the best thing about Barca....for the last 2 years we had fu*k load of problems and still we manage to fight on all three fronts (la liga, copa del rey and CL).
If we manage to win any trophy this season it will be a huge success. I don't see Pep's Barca happening anytime soon. It's a transition we have to survive and stay strong no matter what.

 

[MessiDinho10]

You know what is the best thing about Barca....for the last 2 years we had fu*k load of problems and still we manage to fight on all three fronts (la liga, copa del rey and CL).
If we manage to win any trophy this season it will be a huge success. I don't see Pep's Barca happening anytime soon. It's a transition we have to survive and stay strong no matter what.

Imagine what a succes it will be if we manage to do that next season, with a transfer embargo.

 

[Ghostmaster]

You know what is the best thing about Barca....for the last 2 years we had fu*k load of problems and still we manage to fight on all three fronts (la liga, copa del rey and CL).
If we manage to win any trophy this season it will be a huge success. I don't see Pep's Barca happening anytime soon. It's a transition we have to survive and stay strong no matter what.

Yup I agree, scandals, injuries, nonsense from the media and we are still performing, although I don't believe Tata will be staying after all this mess.

 

[Duke]

According to Radio La Cadena SER the ban can't be revoked!

 

[XaviMessiGirl]

According to Radio La Cadena SER the ban can't be revoked!

Did they give a reason? Either way, as others have said, I'm taking everything the media says about this with a grain of salt until we hear another official statement from either the club or FIFA.

 

[Poor_Sunyol]

Not a witch hunt for Barca. Let's look at the three big scandals this season involving FC Barcelona or it's players:

1) Messi tax case - Started by Catalan prosecutor - nothing to do with FIFA or any other club. I'd even say Messi got off easy, considering Hoeness is going to serve jail time for a similar, but more serious, offence. Messi's not the first person in sports, nor the last, to get caught for tax fraud.

2) Neymar transfer - Started by own club member - nothing to do with FIFA or any other club. If the club had just provided Jordi Cases with whatever documents he was asking, by his own admission, he wouldn't have started any investigation. Of course, you cannot reasonably expect the Spanish authorities to stay quiet after Barcelona announce that they had actually spent 80% more than they had originally declared.

3) International U18 players - Started by FIFA - the only offence you could legitimately pin at a foreign entity in football.This thing has been going on for quite a while. Lee Seung-Woo has been banned from Barca matches for a long time, didn't start this season. While a lot of things are still unclear about the case, Barcelona may have been charged and picked to be the club "that was made to be an example of" because they have probably committed the most offences (10 players!). You can't realistically expect FIFA to go after each and every club, that would be a lot of resources consumed on their side. Smarter for them to charge one club and hope the others learn from it. Anyway, Barcelona are also not the first club to be charged by FIFA on transfer issues - see Chelsea. Also, other teams may be covering their tracks better than Barca, and I've read that Barcelona did not bother to co-operate with this investigation and that might've contributed to them being banned. And you never know, FIFA may still go after those other clubs for the youth transfers.
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My point is, you cannot commit offences over and over again and then use playground excuses like "Oh he did it too, why are you not punishing him?". That's both factually incorrect and in poor taste. No need to externalize the blame (only talking to the minority who feel it's a conspiracy - I see that the majority are holding the board accountable)

I have to say that I tend to agree with you here. There is no point looking for external infulences, the responsibility lies with the club, afterall that is why you have a board of directors to overlook these types of matters and to make sure that we are compliant or at least we aren't caught! I am sure that the rest of the big clubs are doing the same thing, but that is kind of irrelevant. Which brings me on to another point.

I do feel that we are being made an example of, the question is why? We have the most respected academy in the world, nobody could serious accuse Barcelona of exploiting the minors because they get an excellent academic and football education at La Masia. So is it because we have the best academy that we are being targeted? I have a feeling that this post-season we are going to see a lot of investigations happening and potentially quite a few bans being put in place because of the financial fair play rules. Yes, I know that this comes under Uefa not Fifa but in the end they are built for the same purpose. By targeting us on the youth transfers, they show that nobody is above the law and if Fifa and Uefa want to be able to continue to be a credible (debatable!) authority then they need to be able to deliver on the threats that they have made.

If we now assume that most of the big clubs will not pass the financial fair play rules and are given a ban of competing in europe, what happens? Do they set up another league or does Uefa back down? Interesting times ahead...