FIFA Confirm April 11 as Hearing Date Following Chelsea Appeal Against Transfer Ban

FIFA have set a hearing date of April 11th for Chelsea's appeal of the one-year transfer ban they were hit with earlier this month. 

The Blues were sanctioned on 29 counts of alleged improper transfer dealings with overseas players under the age of 18, but have continued to deny the charges set against them.

And, as revealed in a tweet by Times correspondent Martyn Ziegler, FIFA have now set the hearing date for this final appeal against the ban to take place on April 11th after rejecting the chance to suspend the ban until the appeal process was completed earlier this month.

Upon receiving this news, a club statement on March 8th declared: “​Chelsea Football Club is astonished by the Fifa Appeal Committee’s decision not to suspend its sanction pending completion of the appeal process.

“The club acted in accordance with the relevant regulations and has already notified Fifa of its intention to appeal against the Disciplinary Committee’s decision and sanction.

"As a matter of procedural fairness and equality of treatment, and Swiss law, the Club’s right to an appeal process must be afforded, before any irremediable sanction takes effect.

“So far as the Club is aware, in all previous cases where a registration ban has been imposed by Fifa, a decision has also been made to suspend the sanction until the appeal process has been completed. In this case, Chelsea considers that it is being treated inconsistently in comparison with other European clubs.”

The fate of this appeal will obviously have a dramatic effect on the club's business going forward in the next two transfer windows, as well as on the future of a number of players, including ​Eden Hazard and Callum Hudson-Odoi, who have been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge.