Fifa’s transfer watchdog gets teeth into Madrid’s two giants

The transfer bans against Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid announced last week show both the strengths and the weaknesses of Fifa’s regulations.

The regulations have teeth, and they can be enforced, but the teeth are less sharp than they might be. And the football authorities are still struggling to track down and deal with the real abuses: above all, the trafficking of underage African players.

On the plus side, there is the Transfer Matching System, the database controlling international moves.