FIFA has "temporarily suspended" the transfer bans imposed two weeks ago on Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid while world football's governing body "investigates the club appeals regarding the signing of youth players." The FIFA appeals committee "informed the clubs of the news on Friday." The Spanish clubs were "notified earlier this month by FIFA that they had been banned from registering new players for the next two transfer windows after FIFA ruled that both clubs violated regulations against signing young international players." Both clubs "can now sign players while FIFA makes a determination on the appeal" (ESPN, 1/30). ... Three people were injured -- two by firearms -- in a fight between fans of Ascenso MX clubs San Luis and Necaxa after their game on Saturday. It was confirmed that three men were admitted to Hospital Central in San Luis Potosí (EL UNIVERSAL, 1/31).
DEATH OF FOOTBALL CITY: The crisis "engulfing Greek football claimed another victim as a second-tier club went into administration, mirroring wider financial troubles and leaving a hotbed of the domestic game without a professional team for the first time." Based in Heraklion, the country's fourth-largest city and Crete's capital, Ergotelis "joined local rivals OFI in financial meltdown -- two small cogs in an economic machine that has misfired badly since a national debt crisis erupted in 2009." Hellenic Football Federation President Giorgos Girtzikis said, "Football acts as a mirror of society. Certainly the economic crisis continues to affect all clubs, and some have managed to struggle through it, some not" (REUTERS, 1/29).
