Real Madrid Gives Data to FIFA in Probe of Underage Players

FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Coins sent information on player registrations to soccer ruling body FIFA, which is investigating the signing of underage athletes.

The European champion has acted within the rules and submitted all the documentation requested by the Zurich-based ruling body, a Real Madrid official said by telephone.

Under FIFA regulations, soccer clubs can only field minors from another continent if their parents are living in the same country for reasons not linked to soccer.

FIFA is currently gathering relevant information and documentation in order to assess the matter, a spokesman for the ruling body said in an e-mail, adding that no formal disciplinary proceedings have been opened at this stage.

Barcelona was banned from signing players this year for bringing foreigners younger than 18 to its academy, where it trained four-time world player of the year Lionel Messi of Argentina. The underage players were from countries including South Korea and Cameroon.

Among members of Real Madrid’s youth team are Takuhiro Nakai, an 11-year-old from Japan, and Paulo Lubamba, a 12-year-old Angolan, according to squad profiles posted on the club website. Nakai arrived last year from Japan’s Azul Siga and Lubamba joined in 2013 from Chorrillo, a club on the outskirts of Madrid.

Earlier today, sports newspaper As reported that FIFA was examining whether Real Madrid signed underage players to as many as 22 affiliated clubs in Spain.

The FIFA letter asked one of the clubs, whose name wasn’t published by the newspaper, to describe its relationship with Real Madrid and list the players it signed under the age of 18 and subsequently transferred to the European champion during the last five years, according to a copy of the letter published on the newspaper’s website.

The FIFA 15 PC Coins was signed by Kimberly Morris, head of integrity and compliance at FIFA Transfer Matching System AG, or TMS, a unit of the Zurich-based ruling body that tracks the $4 billion international transfer market.