The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has accepted Aston Villa's appeal, allowing January signing Bryan Majo to be registered.

This means Majo can represent Villa in official matches and will soon make his competitive debut after joining, having already featured in preseason.

According to The Athletic in March, Villa was still working on Majo's registration process at the time. After FIFA rejected their initial application last month, Villa opted to appeal the registration of the 17-year-old to CAS, with the hearing held on July 1.

Villa decided to appeal FIFA's initial ruling, hoping Majo could become eligible to play before his 18th birthday. The player joined from Metz in January 2026 for €10 million.

CAS heard the case last Wednesday, with Villa as the appellant and FIFA as the respondent. The Premier League club had met with their legal team weeks prior to prepare their arguments for CAS. CAS ultimately ruled that Villa had sufficient grounds to overturn the ban on Majo's registration, allowing him to play before he turns 18 next January.

Majo has yet to play for any Aston Villa U21 team since joining from Metz six months ago. FIFA rejected his registration because the player was transferring from an overseas club and was under 18. According to Article 19 of FIFA's statutes, players under 18 years old are not permitted to make international transfers, despite Majo himself being born in England to Cameroonian parents.

Majo grew up in Luxembourg and is six months away from turning 18 – at which point he would have been able to register without issue. A similar situation arose in 2024 when Villa signed academy player Ethan Amundsen-Day from Copenhagen. Despite the Norwegian youth defender being born in Leeds, Villa still had to wait until he turned 18 before he could play.

In the latter half of last season, Majo was allowed to train with the first team, where he impressed, and manager Unai Emery had hoped to include him in matchday squads, but the player was consistently ineligible.

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