Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have lost their appeals against transfer bans which were imposed on them for breaching rules on signing non-Spanish under-18 players, FIFA said yesterday.

The decision by FIFA’s Appeal Committee means that neither club can register players during the next two transfer windows and will have to wait until January 2018 to make any new signings.

The bans were initially imposed by Disciplinary Committee in January, but were temporarily lifted pending appeals later the same month, allowing them to sign players in the window which ended last month.