Atlético, lawyer confident of transfer ban cancellation

Man, does international break stink. Things have been very slow in Atlético Madrid World over the past few days. Many players have joined up with their national teams (we’ll have an update on those players later in the week) and currently there’s little in the way of rumors or hubbub. While your friendly neighborhood bloggers have enjoyed the last few days off, it’s also been frustrating knowing there’s not much going on at the moment.

However, on Monday, a veeeeery interesting report in AS indicated that Atlético may have more than a fighting chance of getting this annoying transfer ban revoked. That seems newsworthy, so let’s examine.

Over the last few weeks, transfer rumors surrounding Atlético have started to pick up. We’ve written about a couple of those rumors - Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Kevin Kampl and Lyon forward Alexandre Lacazette are the most prominent names. This has corresponded to an increasing belief inside the club that, like Real Madrid in December, Atleti will lodge a successful appeal of its transfer ban in April. ESPN FC’s Dermot Corrigan wrote, citing the AS report, that the club’s lawyer is confident that the Court of Arbitration for Sport will rule in Atleti’s favor.

Christian Keidel, the attorney representing the club as it appeals the initial ruling, told AS that the real problem is not in Atlético’s behavior - or Real Madrid’s behavior, for that matter - but rather in the regulations spelled out by the Spanish FA.

Keidel explains that there were several exceptions with regard to signing youth players born in Spain but not regarded as Spanish nationals. The argument, then, is that the federation did not spell out clearly these exceptions to FIFA, thus leading to FIFA declaring Atlético to be in violation of its rules.

(I spelled out the rules and potential violations thereof about a year and a half ago.)

I would recommend not getting too excited yet, but this is another positive report regarding the status of the transfer ban and the alleged mixups that led to its implementation. The day to circle is April 24, when we are set to see if the CAS agrees with Keidel and Atlético.