Chelsea can sign players in January after having their Fifa transfer ban reduced following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The Premier League side were given a two-window ban by Fifa in February for breaching rules on signing young players. Cas halved the ban to one window, which was served during the summer. It also reduced the fine for the London club from 600,000 to 300,000 Swiss francs (£230,000). Chelsea were given a transfer ban after 150 rule breaches involving 69 academy players over several seasons, according to the judgement published by Fifa. Cas found that the Blues did violate rules related to the international transfer of minors and to the first registration of minors but for a significantly smaller number of players amounting to about a third of the violations found by Fifa. The Cas verdict added: In addition, the violations of other RSTP (Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players) rules were found to be less serious than those attributed to Chelsea by Fifa. Details of the case which was recently published on a Fifa legal website showed Chelsea claimed many academy players were only triallists and did not play in organised matches. Chelsea lodged an appeal to Cas against the Fifa punishment, which was also prompted by an investigation into the Premier League clubs signing of foreign under-18 players. Fifa bans the transfer of under-18s to different countries unless the moves meet strict criteria, such as the parents moving to the country for non-footballing reasons. The rules were introduced to help protect children from exploitation and trafficking.
