Repercussions

You do something wrong, you get punished for it. Simple enough?

Well, not in the world of football it isn't. The way the game's hierarchy works, each country's football association metes out its own punishment for offenses perpetrated by players within its league. These decisions can then be appealed at the national FA, and if the appeal fails then the dispute is transferred to the appropriate continental governing body (UEFA, AFC, CAF, CONCACAF.. you get the picture..) and, if need be, then the case moves on to a legal court in the continent, then all the way up to FIFA.

The punishments vary, however. A classic example is the range of different rulings found in doping cases around Europe. In Italy, a positive test is punished with an average ban of five months (Jaap Stam and Fernando Couto, as an example). In England with the Rio Ferdinand issue, missing a test can cost you 8 months out of the game. In cases of acts of racism by the fans, monkey chants directed towards black players in Spain cost one or two clubs a paltry 500 Euro fine. Other nations crack down much harder, including substantially heftier fines and possible fan bans meaning that home games won't have a home crowd for a game or two.

And now to the point of this post: Roma's recently imposed 1 year transfer ban.

Now, that's the first time I've ever heard of a "transfer ban" but apparently the boys from FIFA were in a no nonsense mood that day. Recent allegations from french club Auxerre about Roma's improper conduct in regards to the transfer of Phillipe Mexes have irked the top brass, and they decided to inflict a highly creative yet ruthless punishment on the Roman club. Auxerre believe that the Italians had actively encouraged Mexes to break his contract to join them, and so FIFA ruled in their favor and decided that Roma should not be allowed to register new players until the summer of 2006. This has some interesting ramifications, since the club was seeking to reinforce last year's disappointing squad with the trio of Shabani Nonda, Samuel Kuffor and Rodrigo Taddei. Those transfers are pretty much done, with the three players having passed their respective medicals and in waiting for the transfer window to commence so that they can prepare to start pre-season training in the beautiful city of Rome. A very large spanner has been thrown in the works, with the recent FIFA ruling meaning that they can no longer be registered on the club's roster. Roma have decided to appeal against the decision.