Soccer-Atletico protest 'discrimination' as transfer ban stays

BARCELONA - 1 June 2017 : Atletico Madrid complained of discriminatory treatment and a lack of respect by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after their appeal against a transfer ban for signing minors was rejected on Wednesday.

The La Liga club said in a statement that the CAS had reduced their fine of 900,000 Swiss Francs ($927,548) imposed by FIFA in January 2016 but had upheld their transfer ban for two windows, prohibiting them from registering any players bought this summer.

Real Madrid were also banned from signing players for two transfer windows at the same time and given a smaller fine of 360,000 Swiss Francs although the length of their ban was reduced last December to one window, allowing the La Liga champions to sign players this summer.

"We believe the decision to maintain the prohibition of registering players in the summer of 2017 shows preferential and discriminatory treatment to our club as recently in a similar case the sanction was partially lifted," said a statement from Atletico on Wednesday.

"This ruling is unfair and causes an irreparable damage to our club.. This shows a lack of respect for our institution."

($1 = 0.9703 Swiss francs)