If the transfer ban against 1. FC Köln remains in place, what will the squad look like for the new season? An overview of the contract situation.
Following a Fifa ruling, 1. FC Köln will not be allowed to sign any players for the entire 2023/24 season. This was confirmed by the club on Wednesday evening, who will appeal against the ruling.
The background: it concerns the signing of attacker Jaka Cuber Potocnik. Potocnik had moved to 1. FC Köln’s youth team in January 2022, having previously terminated his contract with Olimpija Ljubljana due to numerous breaches of contract on the part of the club.
That is the view of 1. FC Köln, but Olimpija Ljubljana has a different view. The Slovenian first division club had then accused the striker of an illegal breach of his employment contract and sued him and 1. FC Köln at FIFA for payment of damages. Potocnik’s former club accuses FC of inciting the player to breach his contract.
Fifa has now confirmed Olimpija Ljubljana’s view, FC hopes to avert or mitigate the penalty by going to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
It is not clear when the verdict will be confirmed or overturned. It could take several months, which is why the FC also hopes to be able to suspend the sentence until a final clarification.
If that does not work, the club’s hands are tied. No player can be approached, the transfer summer would start completely without Cologne’s involvement.
Should Cologne hold on to the Bundesliga in the current season, in which FC is still in a relegation battle, the question arises: with which personnel does FC want to go into the coming season?
And what has not yet been clarified, what exactly does it mean that the club is not allowed to register any new players?
So what about loan players who come back to Cologne? Presumably they will be allowed to play, because they are registered in Cologne.
What about players whose contracts expire, can they be extended? Presumably yes, because they are already registered.
What about junior players who are not yet registered with the seniors? Many questions that need to be answered.
The current squad structure of 1. FC Köln
Expiring contracts Timo Horn
Jonas Hector
Kingsley Schindler
Ellyes Skhiri
Joshua Schwirten
Sebastian Andersson
Players on loan
Jeff Chabot (Sampdoria Genoa / an option to buy for Cologne has expired)
Players on loan who are coming back
Ondrej Duda (Hellas Verona / with option to buy under certain conditions)
Noah Katterbach (HSV / with option to buy under certain conditions)
Marvin Obuz (Holstein Kiel)
Jonas Urbig (he was also loaned to Jahn Regensburg for the coming season – an early termination of the loan could be sought)
Jens Castrop (1. FC Nürnberg / Club has an option to buy. If he pulls that, Cologne still has an additional buy-back right, but whether that would affect everything in the forbidden registration process in the event of a transfer ban is also unclear)
Meiko Sponsel (Rot-Weiss Essen)
Additions
Leart Paqarada (FC St. Pauli / whether the transfer is valid despite the transfer ban is very unlikely)
Longer bound
Until 2024
Marvin Schwäbe
Julian Roloff
Timo Hübers
Elias Bakatukanda
Kristian Pedersen
Benno Schmitz
Georg Strauch
Jan Thielmann
Dimitrios Limnios
Justin Diehl
Davie Selke
Matthias Schmid
Until 2025
Matthias Köbbing
Luca Kilian
Nikola Soldo
Rijad Smajic
Dejan Ljubicic
Denis Huseinbasic
Matthias Olesen
Florian Kaniz
Mark Uth
Tim Lemperle
Florian Dietz
Until 2026
Eric Martel
Steffen Tigges
Sargis Adamyan