Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have lost their appeals against one-year transfer bans by FIFA for breaking rules protecting underage players.
On Thursday, FIFA’s appeals committee dismissed challenges by both clubs after transfer embargoes were imposed in January.
The bans were later frozen pending the appeals verdicts.
The Madrid clubs have been blocked from registering new players until January 2018. The teams can make deals to sign players but cannot register them to play.
‘Both clubs are to serve a transfer ban that prevents them from registering any players at national and international level for the next two complete and consecutive registration periods,’ FIFA said in a statement.
‘The transfer ban applies to each club as a whole – with the exception of the women’s, futsal, and beach soccer teams – and does not prevent the release of players.’
Both clubs denied wrongdoing in the matter, which was related to signing teenage players whose registration was accepted by the Spanish Football Federation.
