June 9 – The English Football League has voted to restrict the number of overseas loans that can be used after Championship club Watford exploited the system – and came within one match of gaining promotion to the lucrative Premier League.
Watford’s owners, the Pozzo family, also run Italian Serie A club Udinese, 10 of whose players were loaned to Watford last season.
Foreign loan deals were previously not subject to Football League rules and altogether Watford borrowed 14 overseas players. But the Football League has now limited match-day squads to five loanees, with four from any one club – in line with quotas for domestic loans. So from now on, all 72 Football League clubs have to treat overseas loans the same way as domestic ones.
Watford are currently under a transfer embargo until August 31 because of financial irregularities under their previous owners and are planning to try to secure their top loan players from last season, when they lost in the Championship playoff final to Crystal Palace, on a permanent basis.
Watford have just agreed a new shirt sponsorship with online casino 138.com. The three-year deal will see 138.com replace Sega and Sports Interactive as the club’s main sponsor partner.
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