Panaji: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has informed all state associations that a national registration ban has been imposed on Churchill Brothers FC. In the circular issued on Wednesday, the federation said the decision follows correspondence from FIFA’s head of disciplinary.FIFA has imposed a three-window registration ban which means Churchill cannot register new players. The ban follows a contractual dispute between the Goan club and their former player, Kurtis Guthrie.Churchill, however, said they were not aware of the registration ban due to a technical issue and made full payment to Guthrie in less than 24 hours. Details of the payment have already been emailed to FIFA, the governing body for world football.“We expect FIFA to lift the ban in quick time,” a senior club official told TOI on Thursday. “Due to a technical issue with our official email ID, we were not receiving the updates and notifications through the FIFA TMS system. We didn’t even know about the ban until the communication from AIFF was sent to everyone. We’ve made all payments and the ban will be lifted immediately.”As per the FIFA decision, the registration ban is to be lifted immediately and prior to its complete serving upon payment of the amount that is due to the player.Churchill will make their debut in the top tier Indian Super League (ISL) this season after Tata Steel approved the transfer of its 100% stake in Jamshedpur Football and Sporting Private Limited (JFSPL), the company that owns Jamshedpur FC, to the Goan club.They have made several signings this season with South African centre-forward Wayde Lekay, Colombian midfielder Sebastian Gutierrez and Burkina Faso international Dramane Salou among the foreign players.The two-time former I-League champions have signed Vincy Barreto (Jamshedpur FC), Dattaraj Gaonkar (Sporting Clube de Goa), Felixson Fernandes, (Bengaluru FC), Moses Lalrinzuala (Gokulam Kerala FC), Niraj Kumar (Namdhari FC) and Abdul Kadir (Army). Among the Goans, Stendly Fernandes, Anil Gaonkar, Kingslee Fernandes and Richard Costa have been retained, while Trijoy Dias has made a return after spending a year at Gokulam Kerala.
