The following article was originally published in German by Fabian Scheler on www.11freunde.de, when the signing of Arda Turan was not yet completed and, at that time, it was widely speculated that Paul Pogba or Ilkay Gündogan would be signings that the club would pursue. Please bear that in mind while reading.

Barça did illegally sign underaged players, which resulted in a transfer ban imposed by FIFA. Despite the transfer ban, the club continues to sign players. The sports lawyer Paul Lambertz explains how this is possible.

Paul Lambertz, FC Barcelona currently has to deal with a transfer ban. On Monday the club presented their new signing, Aleix Vidal, as if nothing happened.

Barça obviously did everything correctly.

You have to explain that. Doesn’t a “ban” mean that the club is not allowed to sign new players?

This is how I interpreted FIFA's rules: The ban only prohibits the registration at the federation. This registration, however, is only needed to participate in official games. New signings or contracts are still allowed.

Isn’t it that such rules make a mockery of the term “transfer ban”?

The ban in its current form is like a toothless tiger. It undermines the purpose that it should have: to be a noticeable punishment. [It is] a “light” ban, I would say. The players can still be bound to the club, they train with the team in which they will be incorporated, they are allowed to play friendly games and are even allowed to be loaned out. Barcelona is able to continue almost like before.

Does the ban have no effect at all then?

Well, in official games, at least, these players can only be used from January 1, 2016 onwards. If there are players like Vidal who agree to be left out of the competition [until then], then they are allowed to sign with FC Barcelona.

Barcelona got the ban because FIFA wanted to punish 10 cases of signings of underaged players between 2009 and 2013. The current signings and transfer rumors do show one thing though: the club does not seem to be aware of the wrongdoings they are carrying out.

From the outside, this is difficult to evaluate, but one thing is for sure: the fight for younger and younger players is being fought more and more intensely. Sometimes clubs do transgress FIFA's rules, like what happened in Barcelona. From my point of view the federations are called to protect these kids and to oppose such a “competitition/war on talents” vigorously.

FC Barcelona agreed that they have violated FIFA rules while at the same time, pointing out that their famous footballing school, La Masia, offers [the underaged players] an education that complies with the highest standards in terms of human, social, and educational conditions. Is that a plausible excuse?

It could be a PR stunt to explain to the outside world that they didn’t understand the punishment. Some members of the Spanish media went with this argument. But the rules forbid such actions as those committed by FC Barcelona. The violation cannot be explained by the club under current [FIFA] regulations, not even with a football school as good as theirs. Barça was therefore justifiably punished.

The ban was announced in April 2014, Barcelona was able to delay its implementation by appealing it. There was enough time to sign players like Luis Suárez, Marc-André ter Stegen and Ivan Rakitić for a total of €166 million.

Actually FIFA’s rulebook implies that the transfer ban should be “effective immediately.” Barça appealed it and the committee decided that the appeal has a suspensive effect. It was so complex that a decision before the next transfer period was not possible. Therefore, Barça did everything correctly and was allowed to sign important players despite the transfer ban. If there are any other clubs in the future that see themselves in the same situation and make such a request, the appeal committee would be hard pressed to deny the request.

When the ban came into effect, a lot of people were hoping for it to have a deterrent effect, because it hit one of the big clubs. How do you evaluate the case?

From my point of view the transfer ban in its current form has not had any deterrent effect. FC Barcelona is still active on the transfer market despite the ban and is competing with other clubs for players and nobody can keep them from doing that.

Currently Barcelona is courting Paul Pogba and Ilkay Gündogan. What would happen, if those players were to join the club?

The uproar would certainly be huge. Apparently, Barcelona studied the rulebooks wisely. If players move to a club that can only use them half a year later, then so be it. You have to have that idea first. Very few clubs could lure players away with such a plan. And I don't think anybody at FIFA expected that.

Was FIFA sleeping? Is the organization responsible as well?

FIFA is the guardian of its rules. You could charge them if they deliberately leave such gaps open. But I would not want to impose anything like that on FIFA. The fact that they dare approach Barcelona shows that they are serious when it comes to the protection of minors.

Paragraph 19 from the transfer regulations, which Barcelona violated, has some exceptions: for example, minors are allowed to move to a club if the parents move because of “reasons that do not have anything to do with football.” A popular trick from the clubs is to give jobs to the parents, thus creating an exception.

That’s a loophole which opens the door for abuse of the law. If FIFA does not draw any consequences from the weaknesses of their rulebooks, you could, by all means, accuse them of eventually not pursuing the protection of minors.

The weaknesses have been exposed with the example of Barcelona. Therefore you should change the rules, shouldn’t you?

That is a decision that has to be made by FIFA. But I think that the scope of the transfer ban has to be broadened if you want to make a noticeable sanction out of it. The fact is that every club that was sanctioned with a transfer ban would respond in the same way that Barcelona did. If FIFA wants to impose a real ban, then they would have to change the rules altogether at this point.

Would that be difficult?

In my opinion, it wouldn’t. It just needs an additional stipulation, that besides the registration at the federation, transfers and signings are also prohibited. It would only be a little extension of the wording.