Barcelona transfer ban jeopardises deal for 'new Lionel Messi'

Barcelona have been handed a one-year transfer ban by Fifa that threatens their bid to recruit Alen Halilovic, the teenage Croat already dubbed the “new Lionel Messi”, as well as a new goalkeeper to replace the departing Spain international Victor Valdes.

The Catalan giants have been barred from bringing in any players in the next two transfer windows after being found to have breached Fifa rules surrounding the transfer of players aged under 18. Barcelona are likely to appeal against the sanction which would mean they could not conduct recruit any new players at the end of this season or in the next January window.

The punishment is for breaking the rules surrounding the movement of under-18 players – an area Fifa tightened in recent years amid growing fears of young players being in effect trafficked – following an investigation into the arrival of 10 young players at the club between 2009 and 2013. Barcelona were fined £306,000 and the Spanish FA was also fined £340,000 for failing to abide by the rules for player registration – a country’s FA are responsible for registering all players and ensuring they meet the regulations laid down by Fifa.

It throws into the doubt the arrival of Halilovic, Europe’s hottest property, from Dinamo Zagreb this summer as well as finding a keeper to succeed Valdes. Like Halilovic, the Borussia Mönchengladbach keeper Marc-Andre ter Stergen was due to arrive this summer.

A statement from Fifa said: “FC Barcelona has been found to be in breach of article 19 of the regulations in the case of 10 minor players and to have committed several other concurrent infringements in the context of other players.

“The disciplinary committee regarded the infringements as serious and decided to sanction the club with a transfer ban at both national and international level for two complete and consecutive transfer periods, together with a fine of 450,000 Swiss francs.”

Since the regulations were strengthened in 2009 clubs have not been able to sign players aged under 18 from abroad unless they fall under three exceptions – if the player's parents move to the country for reasons not linked to football, where the player is 16 to 18 and the transfer takes place within the EU or the European Economic Area or if the player’s usual home is within 100km of the club.

Like Barcelona, several Premier League clubs have assembled an international cast in their academies. Arsenal have nine different nationalities, four of them from outside the EU, while Manchester City have sought to model their academy set-up on Barcelona.