Atletico Madrid Reportedly Involved in 65 'Serious Cases' of Illegal Signings

Atletico Madrid have reportedly been charged with 65 "serious cases" of signing underage players illegally.

According to Cadena Cope (h/t Football Espana), that is significantly higher than the number of similar charges Barcelona and Real Madrid have recently faced, which ultimately equated to six and two cases, respectively.

Atletico are currently banned from registering players until next January, and according to El Pais as well as Onda Cero's Joaquin Rodriguez, they have reportedly failed in their appeal against the FIFA sanction.

Real—whose two charges were brought down from eight—were handed the same ban after they also breached FIFA rules relating to the international signing of players under 16, but Los Blancos' appeal was successful and they can register players this summer, unlike Atletico.

La Liga writer Andrew Gaffney noted Los Rojiblancos will still be able to recruit in the coming months, too:

Any players brought in will not be able to feature until January, though, so their prospective targets will need to accept a role on the sidelines for the first half of the season if they join.

FIFA are yet to officially confirm the embargo will be upheld, so the club could yet find their appeal to be successful.

However, the severity and the extent of their rule-breaking—if they have indeed done so on 65 occasions as reported—seems likely to hinder that chance.