The president of La Liga, Javier Tebas, has hit out at the transfer bans handed out to Real Madrid and Atletico de Madrid, as well as the one given to Barcelona last year, labeling them as ‘medieval’.
Real and Atletico were found guilty of breaching rules over the signing of young players from overseas. FIFA has banned them from registering players for the summer transfer window this year and next year’s January window.
Both clubs will appeal the ban in the hope it will be overturned, or at least give them the chance to bolster their squads in the summer.
Barcelona were given a similar ban for the same offence and were prevented from making signings in the January or summer windows in 2015.
Speaking to an audience at a conference in Brussels, Tebas slammed the decision to ban the teams from making transfers adding that youth players who arrive from overseas are not only given a great footballing education but are all well looked after and receive a great education off the field too.
“It is medieval and anachronistic that FIFA punishes Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico for having model academies where the children receive not just a great sporting formation, but also education,” Tebas said.
He added: “La Liga is against child slavery and trafficking of minors but this has nothing to do with coming to play football at the schools of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico, because it is undoubtable that there they are well looked after. What is needed is to change the rules on youths in a rational way, because what FIFA is doing makes no sense.”
