All India Football Federation (AIFF) handed Churchill Brothers FC a national ban on player registration on the directive of FIFA Disciplinary Committee after a pay dispute but the Goan club claimed that the matter has now been resolved. The matter is related to alleged unpaid dues owed to English forward Kurtis Owen Guthrie whom Churchill Brothers, which is set to play in the upcoming Indian Super League season, signed before the 2024-25 season.
“This circular is to notify all the Member Associations (MA) and stakeholders of the AIFF that a National Ban on the registration of new players has been imposed on the Club Churchill Brothers FC Goa, a club registered with the Goa Football Association,” the AIFF said in a letter dated September 2.
“Imposition of the ban will be effective immediately in accordance with the correspondence received from FIFA’s Head of Disciplinary dated 01 September 2026. We further request all the MAs to communicate the same to all the affiliated units and registered clubs under your Association. This is for your information and necessary action.” A national ban on player registration could have hurt Churchill Brothers, though the club would have the option of signing free agent foreign players or may be on loan.
Churchill Brothers claimed that they were initially unaware of the sanction due to a technical issue on their official email, but they promptly issued the full payment to Guthrie. After that, the club requested FIFA to immediately lift the transfer ban.
“Churchill Brothers FC Goa has made the full payment due today (September 3) in relation to the matter concerning Mr Kurtis Owen Guthrie. We were notified of the registration ban only yesterday,” the club said in a communication.
“Unfortunately, due to a technical issue with our official email ID, we had not been receiving the relevant updates and notifications through the FIFA TMS system. Consequently, we were not aware of the ban until the notification reached us yesterday.
“We would like to respectfully emphasise that, upon becoming aware of the ban, the Club acted immediately and has completed the payment within 24 hours of receiving the notification.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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