CAS Verdict on Barcelona Transfer Ban Diluted by Summer Spending Spree

Barcelona will not be allowed to sign any players in 2015 after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld FIFA's transfer ban, but it won't have as big an impact as the world football governing body intended it to. 

When the ban was issued in April, it looked potentially disastrous for Barcelona.

Back then, with Victor Valdes leaving and Carles Puyol retiring, the team desperately needed to be refreshed.

Barcelona appealed against the ban and although it was rejected, they then took the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

This then allowed them enough time to make several signings in the summer, which in turn means that they will now be able to cope with the reinstated transfer ban.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

They can survive until January 2016 without adding any new players because of both the players they signed this summer and the youngsters they have at their disposal.

Signing a few players yet to hit their prime in the summer was a good move, with Marc Andre-ter Stegen, Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suarez all able to improve further.

They also signed players in positions they needed, with Thomas Vermaelen and Jeremy Mathieu bolstering the central-defensive options.

In theory anyway, given that Vermaelen is yet to make his debut because of injury and right-back Douglas has looked particularly underwhelming.

Essentially, Barcelona were given a lifeline in the summer which they took, but in a far-from-optimal way.

Their signings, including Liverpool hitman Suarez, mean they will be able to fight on all fronts both this season and next.

Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press

But if Andoni Zubizarreta had taken more care, then they would be perfectly poised for the next couple of years, ban or no ban.

The fact that they can call on an array of talented starlets from La Masia to help them cope with their ban for signing youngsters is ironic, at least in the modern sense of the word.

In the current B team there are the likes of Sergi Samper, Alex Grimaldo and Adama Traore, all of whom have something to offer Luis Enrique.

Furthermore, Gerard Deulofeu and particularly Denis Suarez have been impressing out on loan at Sevilla.

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Despite this, the club are still considering ways to avoid the ban. They released a statement, h/t Sport, which says:

"

FC Barcelona considers the sanction to be completely disproportionate as it supposes an excessive punishment for the Club, when considering its trajectory and the circumstances of this specific case.

In this regard, where the judicial grounds for the CAS decision are announced, the Club shall proceed by studying and evaluating the different legal options available, among others the possibility of appealing against the CAS arbitration to the Swiss Federal Courts.

"

Even if they do take the case to Switzerland's Federal Courts and it gets rejected, they will still be in a reasonable position.

Some Barcelona fans will even be excited at the chance to see more La Masia prospects in action.

But the feeling that if they had bought better in the summer, there would be no problem at all still pervades.