Search icon

Football

01st Jun 2017

Manchester City could potentially face transfer ban after court hearing

The hearing relates to City's signing of Benjamin Garre

Darragh Murphy

It’s no wonder that Pep Guardiola is going all out this summer in the transfer window.

Manchester City could potentially face a transfer ban pending the findings of a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing next month.

CAS is set to investigate City’s signing of Argentine teenager Benjamin Garre from Velez Sarsfield last year.

Velez argue that City tapped up Garre when he was 15 years old, a minor, and the Argentine club complained to Fifa that the deal was in breach of their regulations in relation to signing youth players.

Players must be 16 before they can be approached to be signed, according to Fifa rules.

Fifa cleared City of any wrongdoing last year, according to Manchester Evening News, but the case will now be heard at a CAS hearing on July 3.

If City are found guilty, one of the potential punishments facing the Premier League side could be a transfer ban similar to the one that was upheld against Atletico Madrid’s appeal this week.

Real Madrid and Barcelona have also been hit with transfer embargoes in recent years which precluded the La Liga giants from bringing in new signings.

City, under the incredible financial power of Sheikh Mansour, have continued to prove themselves one of the biggest spenders in the transfer market in recent times and they’ve wasted no time this summer in bringing expensive talent to the Etihad.

Midfielder Bernardo Silva signed from Monaco last week while the final details are being hammered out in their attempt to make Ederson the most expensive goalkeeper of all time.

The Citizens were recently fined £300,000 and hit with a two-year ban on signing academy players from Premier League or EFL clubs after breaching regulations in their signing of two schoolboys last month.