FIFA Rejects Persepolis Request to Lift Transfer Ban

FIFA’s governing body has denied Iran Persepolis Football Club’s request for lifting a ban on transfer windows.

The club was banned for hiring football player Mehdi Taremi in July 2016. At the time, Taremi was already in a contract with the Turkish Club, Rizespor, Varzesh3 reported.

His contract with the Turkish club was finalized, but the unrest ensued by the coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016 caused him to leave the club and sign a contract with Persepolis.

Later on, Rizespor pressed charges against the football player and Persepolis FC in FIFA, which resulted in a $938,000 penalty for the Iranian club. Furthermore, Persepolis was banned from transferring players in the two transfer windows of January and July in 2018. Taremi was also barred from playing for four months.

Transfer ban prevents a club from either buying new footballers or selling them. But after the two clubs’ negotiations over the issue, the situation softened when the managers came to an agreement about the issue and Rizespor agreed to step back on the complain to FIFA.

The agreement, however, did not make in time as FIFA eventually finalized the transfer window ban for the club. The Iranian club’s reconsideration request also fell flat.

Now, the club seeks a way out in Court of Arbitration of sports (CAS), the only organization capable of changing FIFA’s final decision over the ban.

CAS was founded by the International Olympic Committee in 1983, following an increase in the number of international sports-related disputes and the absence of any independent authority specializing in sports-related problems and authorized to pronounce binding decisions.

The team has to attend Asian Football Confederation Champions League next year, which demands new players to be both in the pitch and on the bench.

AFC Champions League takes place during January 16-November 10 in 2018. Also, Persian Gulf games (Iran National Football League) will be underway in the same period, causing the games to be held in a more compressed schedule.