Real Madrid could suffer a similar fate to Barcelona and face punishment for breaching FIFA rules on the signing of underage international players.
According to Mundo Deportivo, Los Blancos have been under investigation for some time, as world football’s governing body have researched the case, and it appears that a number of the club’s younger arrivals did not meet its strict parameters.
The Spanish daily also states that the process began with FIFA being made aware of the aforementioned anomalies by a third party, and immediately launched an investigation in order to establish the facts about the case.
FIFA are believed to be nearing the closure of their investigation, when it must decide what type of sanction to impose, although it may prove complicated due to President Florentino Perez’s seat in the governing body’s Spain committee.
Nonetheless, MD claim that Madrid’s punishment could range from a monetary fine, which would also prohibit the signings of players in a single transfer window, to a complete embargo over two transfer windows.
In addition, Real’s neighbours Atletico Madrid may find themselves under scrutiny, although on a different scale, as they have been investigated in recent months for potentially contravening FIFA regulations on transferring young players to feeder clubs.
Barcelona were banned from signing players during the next two transfer windows after they were found guilty of breaching FIFA rules on the signings of foreign Under-18 players, although they intend to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
A decision is believed to be set for the end of this month.
