Chelsea could be allowed to sign new players in the January 2010 transfer window despite a Fifa ban.
Football's governing body handed out a ban until 2011 after they found the Blues guilty of inducing Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007. But Chelsea could get a reprieve if they delay lodging any appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
Cas has indicated that if Chelsea take the full 21 days to appeal, their ban may be frozen while a decision is made.
"It depends on the filing date of the appeal," Cas secretary general Matthieu Reeb told BBC Sport.
"If we have an appeal within the next week, it seems realistic we will have a hearing in November and a decision in December.
"If it goes a little longer, we'd have to wait until next year but then we'd have a problem with the January transfer period.
"So there is a possibility of Chelsea requesting a stay of the Fifa decision so it is frozen until the final decision of Cas is rendered.
"This means the enforcement of the Fifa decision would not be immediate. It could be postponed and then if the sanction was finally confirmed by Cas, the suspension would be postponed to the next transfer window."
As it stands, Chelsea are barred from registering any new players, nationally, or internationally, during the January or summer 2010 transfer windows.