December 16 – Just a couple of weeks before the start of the mad scramble mid-season transfer window, three of English football’s most iconic clubs – Blackburn Rovers, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest – have been slapped with transfer embargoes for the rest of the season for breaching Financial Fair Play rules.
The trio all play the second-tier Championship and have paid a heavy price for falling foul of existing rules by exceeding the maximum permitted ‘deviation’ between operating loss and shareholder investment of £8 million and will now have to stay within a deviation of below £6 million in order to ensure the embargo is lifted at the end of the current campaign.
They will be banned from paying transfer fees from 1 January 2015 to the end of the season but could have the sanction lifted in June provided they prove they have stayed within the permitted operating loss.
The embargo on Leeds ironically co-incides with controversial Italian owner Massimo Cellino submitting his appeal against being banned. Leeds had hoped to sign a number of new players in the weeks ahead.
Forest manager and former England stalwart Stuart Pearce (pictured), speaking prior to confirmation that the club would be placed under an embargo, said: “We are acutely aware of what direction we will go if we are under an embargo. We feel we have the scouting network that can cope with that.”
The three clubs will still be allowed to sign players in January provided they do not involve a transfer fee.
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