The French Football Federation have welcomed FIFA's decision to ban Chelsea from signing players until January 2011.

Chelsea were rocked this week by a FIFA ban on signing any players during the next two transfer windows after luring teenager Gael Kakuta from Lens, a decision they intend to appeal.

French Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes, meanwhile, is pleased with the decision to punish Chelsea.

He said: "We had alerted FIFA and the Football Association against such misbehaviour.

"What these clubs are doing is like what I have seen from Qatar in other sports, who sent their sporting directors to Paris to recruit and nationalise young athletes.

"We are perfectly happy to see such misbehaviour being sanctioned.''