Barcelona FIFA Ultimate Team Coins has been banned from acquiring new players until the summer of 2015 by FIFA, which punished the Spanish club Wednesday for what it said were repeated violations of the rules for signing teenage players. FIFA said the ban related to the signing and registration of 10 non-Spanish minors from 2009 to 2013.

In announcing the ban, FIFA also fined Barcelona 450,000 Swiss francs and gave the club 90 days to regularize the situation of all minor players concerned.

Barcelona responded with a 14-point defense of its actions and its academy system, which produced the core of its current team and is the envy of many of Europe’s top clubs. Barcelona said that it would appeal the penalties to FIFA and, if necessary, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and that it would demand that it be allowed to sign players until the case was resolved.

The ban covers the next two transfer periods, this summer and in January, but FIFA’s announcement made no mention of Barcelona’s pending acquisitions of the German goalkeeper Marc-André Ter Stegen and the Croatian midfielder Alen Halilovic.

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