Man City to find out whether they face sanctions for allegedly breaching rules over Benjamin Garre signing
Manchester City are expected to discover before the end of the month if they will face sanctions for allegedly breaching rules around the signing of Argentine teenager Benjamin Garre.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) held a hearing last July at which Argentine club Velez Sarsfield claimed City acted unethically by approaching Garre when he was still 15 and then flouted transfer rules by signing the attacking midfielder days after his 16th birthday.
Fifa had upheld City’s argument that Garre was free to join them after his 16th birthday because he holds an Italian passport but Velez alleged that Fifa rules only allow players under 18 to move between clubs in European countries.
City face the prospect of being banned from registering players for the next two transfer windows if CAS rule in Velez’s favour although the runaway Premier League leaders believe they are on strong ground, not least since Fifa approved the signing of Garre.
CAS were originally due to return their verdict in the autumn but the case has taken much longer to conclude. However, the hearing panel are now expected to announce their decision in the next few weeks. A spokesperson for CAS told The Daily Telegraph: “The arbitral award is currently being finalised. It should be notified to the parties by the end of March.”
Fifa rejected an initial complaint from Velez in September 2016, which prompted the club to take City and the world governing body to CAS. “Man City argued that there is an exception in the Fifa rules that said that because he has a European passport he could be transferred,” Bernardo Bertelloni, the Velez club secretary, said last year. “But the Fifa rule does not say that, it says he can move only within the EU, between EU clubs.”
Bertelloni claimed Garre - who is the grandson of Oscar Garre, a member of Argentina’s 1986 World Cup winning squad - left Velez a couple of days before his 16th birthday and spent a few days in Germany before entering England one day after his 16th birthday.
He also alleged Txiki Begiristain, the City director of football, wrote to Velez in June 2016, a fortnight before Garre’s 16th birthday, to explain that the player and his parents had taken the decision to join City. Velez responded by stating their “express refusal” and warning City that they would be in breach of Fifa rules.
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Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have all been subjected to transfer bans in the past few years after being found guilty of breaching rules around the signing of international players under the age of 18.
Last year, City were banned by the Premier League from signing academy players for two years – with the second 12 months suspended - after it emerged they had made illegal approaches for youth players registered with other clubs.
However, City have since been allowed to re-sign one schoolboy they were punished for tapping up at the age of 11 after a climbdown from the Premier League. The boy’s parents fought the ruling and were in the process of taking their case to a tribunal last month before the Premier league agreed to relax City’s sanction. The boy, now 13, a midfielder who joined City from Everton two summers ago, has since resumed training with the club with a view to re-registering with their academy at the end of the season.
