Barcelona will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after Fifa confirmed it will not be able to sign any players in the next two transfer windows.

Fifa announced on Wednesday that it had rejected Barcelona’s appeal against the sanction imposed in April over breaches of rules around the transfer of under-18 players.

The two-window embargo was placed on hold after Barcelona appealed, but Fifa ruled the club will now be unable to register new players in the January and summer 2015 transfer windows.

Fifa said in a statement: “FC Barcelona is to serve a transfer ban which will see the club prevented from registering any players at both national and international level for two complete and consecutive transfer periods, starting with the next registration period (January 2015).”