Premier League club Chelsea has been banned from registering any new players for the next two transfer windows, FIFA said Thursday. “Chelsea is banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two next entire and consecutive registration periods following the notification of the present decision,” a FIFA statement said. The decision effectively means the English club cannot register any new players until January 2011. The next transfer window is in January followed by another in 2010. The punishment was handed out by FIFA following a contractual dispute involving the transfer of Gael Kakuta from French club Racing Lens in 2007. Following a complaint from Lens, FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber ruled that Kakuta had breached his contract with the French club and that Chelsea had induced him to do so. The player was ordered to pay $1.11m compensation and was handed a four-month ban from competitive matches. Chelsea was also ordered to pay training compensation of $185,700 to Lens. The club could appeal against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the sporting world's top tribunal. CAS usually takes around four months to decide cases and generally suspends punishments until the hearing takes place. Hampered by injury, Frenchman Kakuta made only five youth team appearances and two in the reserves last season. He began last season with hamstring problems before being sidelined in February after suffering a double fracture of the ankle in a friendly. Kakuta's first season was more successful as he finished as the youth team's top goal-scorer. In May, Swiss club Sion was banned by FIFA from registering new players for one transfer period following its controversial signing of Egypt goalkeeper Essam Al-Hadari from Al-Ahli last year. Chelsea later said it would “mount the strongest appeal possible” against the decision. “The sanctions are without precedent to this level and totally disproportionate to the alleged offence and the financial penalty imposed,” the club said in a statement. Trezeguet to leave Juventus David Trezeguet plans to leave Serie A club Juventus at the end of the season, the former France striker said Thursday. “I've decided to end my adventure at Juventus in June,” the 31-year-old, who grew up in Argentina, told reporters. “I spoke about it first to my family and we decided to return home. After 10 years here at Juventus I think it's the right time to leave.” The striker, part of France's victorious 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 campaigns, joined Juve from Monaco in 2000. He won the 2002 and 2003 Serie A titles in Turin and his goals helped the club back into the top flight after they were relegated and stripped of two league crowns in 2006 for their part in Italy's match-fixing scandal. Trezeguet was linked to AC Milan in the close season after falling down the pecking order under former coach Claudio Ranieri last term but he said he could not betray Juve by moving to their Serie A rivals. New boss Ciro Ferrara did not field him in Juve's victories in their first two league games this season but the Frenchman remained upbeat.
