Real, Atletico to appeal transfer bans

Spanish football clubs Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have announced they will appeal against the transfer ban imposed on them by world football's governing body FIFA.

FIFA has banned both clubs from registering new players this coming summer and in January 2017 for irregularities in signing players for their respective youth systems, highlighting that Atletico had broken the rules between 2007-2014 and Real Madrid between 2005-2014, reports Xinhua.

The ban is similar to that which FC Barcelona have just completed for similar offences and like the Catalan side, both of the Madrid clubs will appeal with Atletico publishing a statement on their website on Thursday saying the club: "does not agree with the imposed sanctioning ruling and will examine all the documentation received to lodge an appeal against the sanction."

Club president Enrique Cerezo also commented, "we will have to read all 110 pages of the report to see where the mistakes are, but we believe there are many."

Real Madrid also issued a communique on Thursday saying the club will "appeal against the decision in all of its sporting incidents, considering them to be totally inappropriate," while the club' s general director, Jose Angel Sanchez said that Real Madrid "had a code of ethics and had never broken them."