Sports
FIFA to investigate Real Madrid for transfer rule violation
Madrid, Jan 26
Real Madrid could face the same
transfer ban imposed on Barcelona after FIFA opened an investigation
into their signings of under-age players.
The suspicion in Spain
is that the club is preparing for the worst after FIFA's exclusion of
Barcelona from the transfer market for the next 12 months, reported
futbol.as.com Monday.
The investigation into Madrid focuses on two 12-year-olds brought to Madrid from Venezuela in 2012.
Manuel
Godoy and Fernando Macias were on a tour of trials with big clubs but
before they could reach River Plate and Milan, Madrid snapped them up
via an intermediary who has a soccer school in the Spanish capital.
The
first was signed by Madrid in 2012 and the second of the two players
signed aged 13 in 2013. He is currently in the youth system of another
club, Rayo Vallecano.
Madrid have a month to file all relevant
paperwork with FIFA and demonstrate they have not contravened the
governing body’s "Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players",
which only allows the signing of Under 18s from outside the European
Union if the player’s parents have had to relocate to the country where
the club is based, for non-football reasons.