Real Madrid were able to be more successful than Barcelona in appealing their FIFA transfer ban at Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) because they committed fewer offences to begin with.
After Blaugrana complaints that they were made to serve the full weight of their transfer embargo whilst Los Blancos had theirs halved has led to the judge responsible, Michele Bernasconi, coming out with a conclusive statement.
When it came to signing minors, the crucial difference was how the LaLiga giants respected Article 19 of the FIFA regulations on bringing in players under the age of 12.
Barcelona were punished for their failure to meet these regulations whereas the CAS judge felt that Madrid had done no wrongdoing in this regard and therefore annulled that section of the FIFA ban.
While both clubs were represented by the same lawyers, Lucas Ferrer and Jordi López, they managed to prove that Real had not violated the Article to convince the judge that the youth footballers lived a normal life uninhibited by the game.
This was helped by the testimony from the mother of one of the children affected by the statute and from a lawyer of the Spanish FA, Kepa Larumbe.