Real Madrid has denied reports that it has broken FIFA's youth transfer rules "by being involved in commercial projects to develop a large number of young Chinese footballers in Spain," according to Dermot Corrigan of ESPN. On Wednesday, Spanish newspaper AS ran a story claiming that Real Madrid "had partnered with a private company [Soxna] in a deal which brought 25 Chinese youngsters under the age of 14 to live and develop as footballers in Spain." The report claimed the deal also involved Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande, and was worth more than €13M ($14.77M) to Soxna, which currently works with both Real and Evergrande running football schools in China. Real's "alleged connections with Soxna" were linked to the "reported possibility" that the club is "set to be hit" with a one-year transfer ban by FIFA for irregularities in signing youth players -- similar to the punishment that Barcelona is currently suffering. The club has reacted with an official statement, which said that "it was not involved in any youth development work with either Soxna or Guangzhou Evergrande which was in any way contrary to FIFA's youth transfer regulations" (ESPN, 5/14).
