During the five day application period for tickets to the Spanish Cup Final in Mestalla on April 16, which closed on Monday evening, a total of 15,479 requests for 36,323 tickets were received, with the 13,158 limit for members set by the Club, surpassed as early as Saturday.

The price of the tickets for the final starts at 45 Euros.

Draw on Wednesday

A draw will be held on Wednesday morning at the Club to decide which of the applications will be accepted and the Club will then inform the winners about the procedures for paying and collecting the tickets.

Tickets should be collected from the new ticket offices situated at Access gate 14. Just behind the offices you can find FCB Viatges, where you can find out about the Club’s organised train and coach trips to the game.

Journey by coach or train

The Club is offering 800 train places. Regular train services from Sants station on the morning of 16 April will cost 70 Euros, whilst the Club’s chartered train leaves at 10 in the morning, with the price of a ticket at 70 Euros (tourist class) and 98 Euros (first class). Stewards will assist travellers at both departure and arrival stations.

The trip can also be made by coach from each of the four Catalan capitals. These coaches will leave at 10 in the morning and cost 35 Euros from Girona, Barcelona or Lleida and 30 Euros from Tarragona. The cost of the ticket includes travel insurance and each coach will have its own guide. Travelling fans  from Barcelona can park their cars in the Club car park as space permits.

This Wednesday, in the Ricard Maxenchs press room, the draw was made, before a notary, for the  13,158 tickets that the Club has available for its members for the Spanish Cup Final on Wednesday 16th of April in Mestalla against Real Madrid.The cut-off number was 12,876. So, the lucky applications are from 12,876 up to 15,479 and from 1 to 3,219.

It's worth remembering that members applied for 36,323 tickets, grouped in 15,479 applications in a process which closed on Monday at 7p.m. 50 tickets were also drawn between the 1,000 senator members.

From this Wednesday the Club will be in contact with the winning members with a view to charging for the tickets and comminicating instructions for their collection. Please note that the tickets must be picked up by the member who will use them. In the case that the member is unable to collect them, the name and DNI of the person who will collect them, together with the corrsponding authorisation, must be communicated. This person can only collect up to eight tickets for other people.

Ticket collection should be carried out at the new turnstiles, located at Access 14. Just behind these is the office of FCB Viatges, where you can purchase travel tickets by train or coach that the Club will provide, and will mean travelling on the day of the match.

Travelling by train or coach

In the case of the train, the Club has 800 seats available. If you choose one of the five regular trains that leave from Sants station on the 16th in the morning until noon, the ticket price is 70 euros. In the case of travelling with the convoy at the time scheduled (charter), which will leave at 10 a.m. from Sants, the price is 70 euros (tourist class) and 98 euros (business class). On each train and at the stations in Barcelona and València there will be travel assistance.

There is also the option to take the coach from the four provincial capitals of Catalonia. All vehicles will leave on the morning of the 16th, bound for Valencia and the ticket price is 35 euros if you leave from Girona, Lleida, and Barcelona, or 30 euros if you start the journey from Tarragona. This price includes travel insurance and each coach will have a guide. Moreover, people who go from Barcelona can park their own car in the Club car-parks (until capacity is reached).

From Monday March 24 at 10.00 AM CET, and until Tuesday 25 at 7.00 PM CET, applications will be open via the club website (www.fcbarcelona.com) for tickets for the Champions League quarter final second leg match with Atlético Madrid at the Vicente Calderón, to be played on April at 8.45 PM CET.

Applications are only open to club members and must be made using a form that will be made available in the Members section of the club website. Each member may apply for just one ticket although as many as four members may apply on the same form in order to be able to travel together.

3,071 tickets available

FC Barcelona will be allocated 3,071 tickets for the game on April 9, which cost 60 euros each. As usual, 85% of the tickets will be allocated to members (2,088) and supporters clubs (522), while the other 15% will be used for the club’s sporting, institutional and sponsorship commitments (461).

Draw on March 26

Applications will not be processed until the period has expired, and if the demand is greater than supply, then on Wednesday March 6 a draw will be held before a notary for all of the registered applications. On that same day, the club will announce the result of the draw and charge the cost of the tickets.

Shortly, once the first team’s travel plans have been arranged and the prices of flights and busses are known, FCBViatges will be able to announce further information about travel to Madrid for FC Barcelona supporters.

On Monday March 25 from 10.00 AM CET, non season ticket holding members will be able to purchase tickets for the Champions League quarter final first leg at the Camp Nou, to played on April 1 at 8.45 PM CET.

Tickets will only be available online from the club website at www.fcbarcelona.com or Ticketmaster. A maximum of two tickets may be purchased per membership card, with a 5% discount on the price of the first one. Sales will remain open until the tickets run out.

Wednesday 26 for all members and the general public

On Wednesday March 26 from 10.00 AM CET, tickets released by season ticket holders by means of the Seient Lliure system will go on general sale. If the tickets run out, the procedure will be closed, and will reopen a few days before the match for sale of any newly released tickets.  Tickets will only be available online from the club website at www.fcbarcelona.com or Ticketmaster.

A maximum of two tickets may be purchased per membership card, with a 5% discount (for FCB members only) on the price of the first one.

FC Barcelona representatives were engaged in two institutional events before this evening’s Clásico. The first was a New Espai Barça presentation and the second was the traditional meal between directors of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

The Barça expedition to Madrid is led by Josep Maria Bartomeu, and he’s accompanied by vice presidents Javier Faus, Jordi Cardoner, Carles Vilarrubí and Jordi Mestre, and the directors Jordi Moix, Ramon Pont, Joan Bladé and Josep Ramon Vidal-Abarca.

The plane that carried the expedition arrived in Madrid at 11.45 AM. Upon arrival, Club delegates conducted a presentation of the New Espai Barça for local supporters clubs and Club members who live in Madrid. The event was led by vice president Cardoner and Pau Vilanova, directer of the Social Commission. In addition, former players Carles Rexach, Josep Maria Fusté, Quique Costas and ‘Lobo’ Carrasco also participated in the presentation.

Later that afternoon, Bartomeu, Faus and Vilarrubí, accompanied by general director Antoni Rossich, and director of football Andoni Zubizarreta, attended the traditional meal between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona representatives.

Enjoy the following series of wallpapers of FC Barcelona's victories over Real Madrid at the Bernabéu

SEASON 2013-14

SEASON 2012-13

SEASON 2011-12

SEASON 2010-11

SEASON 2009-10

SEASON 2008-09

Tickets for the Barça-Betis match scheduled for April 5 will be half off. Starting this Monday, 24 March, the Club will offer discounts of up to 50% to Club members who do not have seasons tickets; limit two tickets per member. Season ticket holders will have the usual discount of 20%.

The tickets can be purchased on the Club’s website, ticketmaster and at the Camp Nou ticketing booths.

The Barça-Betis match will be the last game at the Camp Nou before the final of the Copa del Rey against Real Madrid and, after that game, there will be only three league matches at the Camp Nou for the rest of the season.

It’s worth noting that the Barça-Betis match corresponds to Round 32 of La Liga, which coincides with referendum on the New Espai Barça. Polls will remain open from 9:00 AM CET to 9:00 PM CET.

New Espai Barça Referendum

The demand to see the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final at the Vincete Calderón between Atlético Madrid and FC Barcelona didn’t surpass the supply at the Club’s disposal. Therefore all 2,010 Club members that asked for a ticket through 872 petition forms will be able to watch the match from the stands of Atlético’s stadium.

FC Barcelona had a total of 3,071 tickets (starting at 60 euros) for the match, which will be played on April 9. As usual, 85% of the tickets are allocated to Club members (2,088) and supporters clubs (533), while 15% are allocated for athletic and institutional purposes (461).

From now on you will le able to show how much you know about FC Barcelona, thanks to the application ‘FCB Trivia Fans’, result of the licence agreement between FC Barcelona and Etermax.

‘FCB Trivia Fans’ is a free application for devices with iOS and Android operating systems, as well as pretty soon on Facebook, with which you can test your knowledge about the Club and compete with your friends or other participants from around the world.

ANDROID DEVICES

iOS DEVICES

On Thursday, FC Barcelona presented this application in the Roma Room at FC Barcelona, with the presence of Didac Lee, Director of the Media and Communication Department, and Head of New Technologies, and Máximo Cavazzana, CEO of Etermax.

This application has been developed by Etermax, a company which has already created applications like 'Apalabrados', 'Mezcladitos' or 'Preguntados' and has reached over 12 million users. For his part, Cavazzana said that "Etermax try very hard to make their products the best".

"We at FC Barcelona, just like on the pitch, are committed to excellence in the field of digital business. For this reason we went to look for the best partner to develop a game that could reach all Barça fans. Thus we decided to go ahead with this project together with Etermax "Didac Lee said at the presentation of 'FCB Fans Trivia'.

How does it work

The application is available in Catalan, Spanish and English and has up to six categories of questions organized into sections on History, Players, Coaches, Trophies, Trivia, and Games that are chosen at random on a spinning roulette wheel. Users can choose six players from the Barça first team squad, each one representing a category of questions.

'FCB Trivia Fans' presents itself with a fun and easy to use interface that all users can create multiplayer games and share them on social networks. In this sense, Cavazzana highlighted the component "socialising with other fans" that allows the application to work on their own chat. "It is an innovative and pioneering project that incorporates the concept of community" added Didac Lee.

After a year of development, 'FCB Fans Trivia "is now a reality as new FC Barcelona official application.

FCB Trivia Fans

The four goals FC Barcelona scored at the Santiago Bernabéu during the Clásico gave the team a significant victory that allows the Blaugrana to aspire to the league title. In addition, the match was followed by millions of people which broke online records on FC Barcelona’s official social media channels and website. Here's an overview of the 10 digital record-breaking figures:

• The 15 posts published on the official Facebook page of the Club on Sunday (game day) generated four million likes.

• The official picture on the the Club’s Facebook page is close to getting one million likes.

• This weekend, Barça’s Facebook page registered 302,000 new users, a 50% increase in traffic to previous weeks.

• The photograph with the final result of the match on Instagram reached 197,000 likes and it became the most-liked all-time photo on Barça’s instagram.

• On game day 9 pictures and 2 videos were published and they generated more than 1.5 million likes.

• During the week of the Clásico more than 25 videos were published on Barça’s official YouTube channel, they were viewed more than 1.2 million times.

• Barça’s eight official Twitter accounts gained more than 55,000 new followers, thus the number of daily users of the accounts quadrupled.

• The tweet of Messi’s third goal had more than 17,000 retweets.

• The audience on the Club’s digital platform increased by 517% during the week.

• The Clásico was the second most watched game of the season. The first was the FC Barcelona - Real Madrid match at the Camp Nou.

FCB SOCIAL

FC Barcelona has widened its international presence with the launch of the new profile on Sina Weibo, a social network with over 500 million users. The incorporation of the Club in Sina Weibo is a demonstration of its commitment to the Chinese market, after consolidating its web page and profile in Tencent, the other Chinese micro-blogging giant, and following in the footsteps of other global icons like the NBA, Kobe Bryant and Pelé.

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In the new official Barça profile in Sina http://www.weibo.com/fcbarcelona, fans will be able to access exclusive content, information and photos, and will be able to participate directly, despite the distance. "We want to make Barça a football icon in China” said Dídac Lee, Director in charge of Media & Communications, and also FC Barcelona New Technologies, who argues that “to establish bonds of relationship with our fans around the world is a Club priority. The launch of the official account on Sina Weibo allows us to connect with the millions of Chinese who support Barça from a distance".

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Unique shirt for the new fans

In addition, and to celebrate the release, the Club has launched a campaign to find the Chinese fan with most passion for Barça. Followers who send in their most moving Barça photos will have the chance to win a very special prize: three shirts with the Chinese New Year logo that the first team wore this season in the match against Valencia. The prize, which is unique and of limited edition, is to reward the loyalty of one of the communities of most Barça fans worldwide, and whose relationship has been extended in recent years with increasingly greater presence in different social channels. Fans should send their photos with the hashtag #巴萨登陆新浪微博#

FCB SINA WEIBO

FC Barcelona has reached an agreement with Dinamo Zagreb and Alen Halilovic for the transfer of the player to the Club for an initial amount of 2.2 million euros, which will increase as the player achieves the objectives of consolidating a position in the first team. The player, who turns 18 on June 18, will start out in Barça B. Halilovic has signed a contract for five seasons.

Profile

Born on June 18, 1996 in Dubrovnik (Croatia) Alen Halilovic is a left-footed attacking midfielder. After rising through the Dinamo Zagreb youth ranks, in the 2012/13 season he made his first team debut at the age of 16, playing 18 league matches and scoring two goals. He also got his first Champions League experience on October 24, 2012 in a 2-0 defeat at home to PSG in the group stage.

On June 10, 2013 he appeared in his first full international in a friendly against Portugal, becoming the youngest player ever to play for Croatia. He was also named in the squad for three 2014 World Cup qualifiers, although he never came off the bench in any of those matches.

This season has seen him progress even further. He has played 19 games in the Croatian top flight (the Prva HNL), starting eight of them, and scoring three goals. Dinamo Zagreb are runaway leaders in their domestic championship with an 11-point lead on second placed Rijeka. Halilovic was also involved in Champions League qualifiers and matches in the Europa league group stage.

The first step towards the construction of the Camp Nou occurred in September 1950, when then president Agustí Montal i Galobart signed the option to purchase the site in the district of Maternitat, which was made effective two months later. But it would be another two and a half years before the building work started. New president Francesc Miró-Sans was a fervent advocate of getting the job done sooner rather than later and on February 18,1954 he announced that the stadium would be built on the land purchased in 1950 and not at the top of the Diagonal as was also being suggested. Sixty years ago, on March 28, a crowd of 60,000 people gathered to watch the first stone of the Camp Nou being laid by civil governor Felipe Acedo Colunga and blessed by the Archbishop of Barcelona, Gregorio Modrego.

That stone is now in the FC Barcelona Museum, in the middle of the first floor, as part of a display showing the club’s continuity: including the posters for the different anniversaries, and this very peculiar stone, unusual in that the first stones of most major construction projects usually end up buried underground and forgotten, and what’s more this particular item has been the first stone on two separate occasions.

From Les Corts to the Camp Nou

That’s because it was also the first stone laid at the old ground at Les Corts, solemnly placed by Joan Gamper himself on February 19, 1922. Then, 38 years later, the same stone was used to symbolise commencement of work on the future Camp Nou stadium under the presidency of Francesc Miró-Sans.

The stone emerged during the modifications made at Les Corts, and the idea occurred of using it again for the Camp Nou. A new date was inscribed on the back and the stone was laid, but following a new reconstruction process, it once again appeared on the surface. There seems to be something about this stone that makes it refuse to be hidden away, and hence it is now proudly displayed inside the Club Museum, as an iconic and emblematic image of the continuity of the club.

NEW ESPAI BARÇA +SPECIAL

Liu Shutong decided that the Camp Nou was the perfect place to ask his girlfriend to marry him. And that is precisely where he did it, while enjoying a visit to the ‘Camp Nou Experience’. The young Chinaman, who was in Barcelona after winning the trip in a competition promoting Barça and Catalonia in his home country, offered his partner, Liu Panqiu, an engagement ring, which she emotionally accepted with tears in her eyes.

Shutong and Liu Panqiu met each other at the Barça supporters club in Wuhan, and their shared passion for the club has already seen them travel as far as Thailand last summer to watch the team on its Asian tour.

They were joined on the trip by Jiang Xinxiao and Chen Xuejun, who came second and third in the competition. As well as watching the game with Celta and taking in the Camp Nou Experience, they have also been taken on several excursions around Catalonia, discovering the city of Barcelona and its spectacular modernist buildings, the Dali Museum in Figueres, the Costa Brava, the Penedès wine-making region and the mountain-top monastery at Montserrat. Like every year, FC Barcelona has been supporting the Catalan Tourist Board with its projects to promote the country around the world, with a special focus on the Chinese market.

The Chinese supporters made sure that they took plenty of photographs of this trip that has brought them 10,000 kilometres from their homes, for they don’t know when they’ll ever get the chance to return. "I don’t know when, but I’m sure I’ll be back” said Shutong. Dídac Lee, the Barça director for new technologies, was there to welcome the guests to the club, saying that "it is in incredible to see what Barça means to people who live in a country as far away as China".

Lee added that Barça "want to keep in close touch with our Chinese fans through the digital world. It’s very gratifying to see how much love people in other countries feel for the club… Barça is one of the finest ambassadors for Catalonia”.

The third edition of the ‘Barcelona Action’ competition organised by the Catalan Tourist Board in association with Tencent Sport and Qatar Airways and also FC Barcelona has made yet more dreams come true for Barça’s Chinese supporters. As in the first two editions, fans that feel a genuine passion for FCB have been able to come to the city for the very first time and get to see the Camp Nou from the inside.

Carles Puyol's announcement, Víctor Valdés injury, the victory at Santiago Bernabéu and some of the skills at training session, some of the best videos of march on Youtube official channel. Check it!

Top videos

FC Barcelona is the first sports club anywhere in the world to be able to boast more than 100 million followers on its social networks, thus consolidating its position as a global phenomenon in the digital world. Sporting and social excellence has led to leadership in the 2.0 market, where FCB is the top club on all the world’s major networks. In fact, the club is gaining about 100,000 new followers a day on its different social networks, and is the number one sports club on each of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Tencent Weibo and YouTube, the biggest platforms in the world.

FC Barcelona members will vote on the future of the Camp Nou, the Palau Blaugrana, and FC Barcelona installations around the stadium this Saturday, 5 April. In addition to voting on the project known as the New Espai Barça, the first team will take on Real Betis at the Camp Nou after the polls close.

What is the Espai Barça

The Espai Barça project goes well beyond the reconstruction and remodeling of the Camp Nou. In addition to increasing the capacity of the current stadium to 105,000 and completely remodeling the current structure of the Camp Nou, the Espai Barça project entails building a new Palau Blaugrana with a capacity of 12,000, an additional court with a capacity of 2,000, an ice rink, a new Social Area, a new Commercial Area, revamped Club offices, La Masía and adding 5,000 parking spaces. If the proposal is approved, the year for completion of the New Espai Barça is 2021, as seen in the below graph:

 For additional information on the New Espai Barça, click here.

Where to vote

The esplanade leading to the Auditori 1899 will host all the voting tables for the referendum. This means that members cannot vote at the Miniestadi or the Camp Nou, where previous votes were held. The reason for the change of location is to ease the voting process by guaranteeing accessibility to all members who choose to vote – the space is not isolated by stairs or architectural barriers.

ID required to vote

It’s worth noting that only Club members who are registered in the definitive Club census approved but the Consultation Board can vote in the New Espai Barça referendum. In addition, members must bring a valid form of identification to the polls. Valid forms of ID are limited to the following documents: passport, DNI card, drivers license, or Club membership card. It is not required for members to present their Club membership cards to vote, but it’s recommended to bring the membership card along in order to gain access to exclusive member events and activities.

Blaugrana party before Betis clash

The hours leading up to kick off against Betis on Saturday will have a festive air about them. The Club has programmed a series of events and activities for Club members that will start just after noon and end right before the league game against Betis gets underway (6:00 PM CET).

In addition, members will be able to enjoy a 25% discount off merchandise from the FCBotiga Megastore from 9:00 AM CET to 4:OO PM CET.

Following the sanction imposed by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on FC Barcelona (FCB) for offenses involving the transfer and registration of players under 18, FCB would like to make the following points:

1. According to the official statement released by FIFA, the Royal Spanish Football Federation has also been sanctioned the transfer of international minors.
2. The statute that FCB allegedly infringed upon is intended to protect minors from the actions of sports clubs that incorporate players without ensuring the required attention necessary for proper development, FCB itself does guarantee the development of its players through the model of La Masia.
3. La Masia’s model incorporates educational training programs, accommodation, meals, medical care, attention to the needs of children and sports development plans. FCB forms people before athletes, a fact that has not been considered by FIFA, which applies a penalty criterion that ignores the educational function of our training program.
4. All FCB players have always had their federal licenses as required by the respective federations. All of them at all times.
5. Some of the players affected by FIFA’s ruling have even been called up by the Catalan Football Federation to participate in the regional championships with the Catalan team.
6. Since this process was started by FIFA, the federation licenses held by the affected players have been withdrawn and they have not featured in official matches. Thus, there has been no non-regulatory participation in athletic endeavours by any of the aforementioned players.
7. FC Barcelona has not breached any civil law and all children who train at La Masia are legal residents in the country.
8. Players whose federal licenses have been nullified by FIFA have had the option of continuing in the Club, which is committed to ensuring their education, in order to avoid social harm, despite the fact that they are banned from featuring for FCB.
9. No player of FCB is in an administrative irregular situation.
10. FCB has communicated the need to revise the regulations intended to protect minors on various occasions to FIFA. The intent is to make said regulations more effective.
11. FCB’s development model has always received the express recognition of FIFA, La Masia has always been used as an example of good practice.
12. FCB’s candidates for the Ballon d'Or is an example of FIFA’s recognition of our sports training and development procedures.
13. FCB’s training model aids the families of many players to integrate into society.
14. In Catalonia alone it is estimated that 15,000 underage players born outside of Spain and registered with their federation who, according to the criteria used in this case by FIFA, would have to be considered to be in a similarly unauthorised state.

For all the above mentioned reasons, FCB will be presenting the corresponding appeal to FIFA and should it be necessary, take the resulting resolution to the Tribunal d’Arbitratge de ‘Esport (TAS). FCB will also demand the relevant interim measures needed to preserve the Club’s rights, amongst which are those along to it to sign players in transfer windows.

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1.- February 5 2013 the Club receives the request from FIFA (via RFEF) for information concerning the registration of  Lee Sung Woo, which was presented and as a measure of the Club’s complete transparency and willingness to collaborate, we also included information concerning another Korean youngster (Jang Gyeolhee) who was in the same situation and whose name was also mentioned in the papers concerning Lee Sung Woo. We duly answered FIFA’s request on February 15 2013.

2.- On March 1 2013, President Rosell sent a letter to the FIFA Secretary General  to propose substantial modifications to Article 19 of the Protection of Underage Players to make it more effective.

3.- On May 6 2013, the Club received notification from FIFA that they wanted information concerning 16 more players and any other non-Spanish players who were not registered with the RFEF or who were only registered with the Federació Catalana de Futbol. The Club duly gave details of 15 more players and sent all the information requested on May 16, 2013. At this time information concerning a total of 33 players had been provided by the Club.

4.- On July 9, the Club recieved a reply from FIFA’s secretary general, Jerome Valcke, to President Rosell concerning the Club’s proposal to consider an exception to article 19 of the Protection of Underage Players, which referred to a possible analysis of the issue by the Player Status Committee at the end of the year.

5.- On July 12 2013 the Club received notification from FIFA (via RFEF) of a request for more information about 25 of the 33 players, which was sent on July 17, 2013.

6.- On 25 September 2013, FIFA contacted RFEF with 31 letters – one for each player investigated  - requiring further information from 18 of them and informing them that disciplinary proceedings were being opened which would be sent to the Disciplinary Commission at its meeting on November 29, 2013. This information was re-sent to the Clubby the RFEF on October 4 2013 and the corresponding appeals were lodged on October 8, 2013.

7.- On 20 November 2013, FIFA (via RFEF) asked for further information concerning 12 of the 18 players, which was sent to FIFA on November 25, 2013.

8.- On 26 November 2013, FIFA asked for information concerning 4 more players who they believed should have been included in response to the request made on May 6, 2013. This information was sent on December 3, 2013, which was the deadline set by FIFA. The total number of players about whom information had been requested was now 37.

9.- On 28 November, before the deadline set for the presentation of the information requested above, FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee met and decided on the sanctions to be applied to FC Barcelona, which was not communicated to the Club until yesterday, April 2, 2014 -4 months and 5 days after the decision had been taken. The FIFA Secretary General has today admitted that he is unaware of the reasons why this decision was not communicated until now.

10.- On 9 December 2013, eleven days after the disciplinary decision had been taken, FIFA confirmed they had recieved the information they had asked for before the deadline they had set.. They also asked for information concerning all the non-Spanish underage players registered at that time and who had been registered since May 16 2013. This information was sent on 16 December, one day before the deadline set by FIFA. It is surprising that FIFA continued to request information despite having already taken its decision to impose sanctions.

11.- Yesterday, 2 April 2014, we received notification of the sanctions to be imposed by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee. Out of a total of 37 players investigated, FIFA considered that 9 did not fulfil the conditions laid out in the Rules for Transfer of Players.