FOOTBALL : Carlo Ancelotti insists he will not be rushed into buying new players in January even though the Court of Arbitration for Sport has suspended their transfer ban.
Carlo Ancelotti insists he will not be rushed into buying new players in January even though the Court of Arbitration for Sport has suspended their transfer ban.
CAS on Friday agreed to suspend their FIFA-imposed transfer ban until a final decision is made in relation to their appeal.
“Now, thanks to this decision we have time to look for new players,” said Ancelotti. “But we don’t want to take a decision in this moment. At the moment, I’m very happy with the squad, these players, and it’s not necessary at the moment to take new players.”
FIFA banned the Blues from any transfer activity until 2011 after they were found guilty of inducing teenage Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with French club Lens.
Chelsea appealed to CAS against the punishment and also requested the ban be suspended until their case had been dealt with in full.
That is now likely to take place well into the new year.
The Blues will lose Michael Essien, Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and John Mikel Obi to the African Nations Cup in January but Ancelotti remains confident they can cope without them.
The Chelsea boss added: “I know we will lose four in January but if we maintain the players’ fitness we can do a good period also without the African players. We can buy players in January, but now we have other questions to answer. It’s not important now what we can do in January.”
A statement from CAS read: “The Court of Arbitration for Sport has granted the request for a stay filed by Chelsea Football Club Ltd and Mr Gael Kakuta in relation to the decision taken by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber on 27 August 2009.
“The FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber imposed, inter alia, a restriction of four months’ ineligibility on Mr Gael Kakuta, and Chelsea Football Club Ltd was banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the next two complete, consecutive registration periods. Such sanctions are now stayed until the CAS renders its final decision in this matter.”
