Football
James Olley, Senior Writer, ESPN FC 4y

FA takes FIFA to court over punishment in Chelsea transfer ban

The Football Association (FA) will battle FIFA in court next month over its punishment in relation to Chelsea's transfer ban.

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The FA are challenging the disciplinary process and the accusation that there was mismanagement in the registration of minors. 

The case will be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on June 26.

"The FA has cooperated fully with FIFA's investigation. As this is an ongoing legal process it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time," an FA spokesperson told ESPN. 

In February 2019, Chelsea were sanctioned for breaching 150 regulations regarding the transfer and registration of 69 players under the age of 18 over several seasons.

The FA were also found guilty of breaking rules regarding the registration of those players and at the time, was "given a period of six months to address the situation concerning the international transfer and first registration of minors in football."

Both parties were also fined with Chelsea banned for signing players in the subsequent two transfer windows.

The Blues had that sanction reduced to one window on appeal in December, when their original £460,000 fine was halved to £230,000.

The FA also had their fine reduced to from £421,000 to £290,000 on an initial appeal and which they are now seeking to appeal further.

At the time, the FA said it would "continue to work with FIFA and Chelsea in a constructive manner to address the issues which were raised by this case." 

Sources have told ESPN that Chelsea and the FA have argued a lack of clarity in FIFA's guidelines contributed to inadvertent rule breaches.

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