Blackburn Rovers and Leeds United given transfer embargoes for breaching Financial Fair Play rules

Blackburn, Leeds and Nottingham Forest have been given transfer embargoes for the rest of the season for breaching Financial Fair Play rules, according to the BBC.

Under current rules, clubs are permitted to lose no more than £3 million a season, with a maximum of £5 million of shareholder investment in 2013-14.

The clubs will have the opportunity to have the embargoes lifted in June and in order to do so they will need to prove they have stayed within an operating loss of no more than £3 million, with a maximum of £3 million of shareholder investment for the 2014-15 season.

The clubs will still be allowed to sign players in January if they have 24 or fewer players over the age of 21 who have made at least five starting appearances for the club and any of these signings must not cost the club a transfer fee and must cost less than £600k a year.

Clubs with 24 or more players fitting the criteria will be allowed to trade players on a ‘one out, one in’ basis.

For incoming players, clubs may still pay agents’ fees as a benefit in kind to the player in question, as long as they do not exceed the £600k employee costs limit.

Blackburn managing director Derek Shaw said: “Whilst the ruling will clearly present some difficulties, we will of course respect the rules of the Football League.

“A lot of effort and hard work has been done to reduce player costs over the last two years, but we have wanted to rebuild and challenge in this division at the same time, and we will continue to do that.”

Forest manager Stuart Pearce, said: “We are acutely aware of what direction we will go if we are under an embargo. If you cannot go out and buy a player in the transfer market that is always a little bit hurtful.

“But the flip side is that if you have to be cute in the transfer market and get Bosmans and free transfers. We feel we have the scouting network that can cope with that.

“As a football supporter I would not want my club to go bust because of financial overspending, so if the League are putting plans in place to safeguard then long-term future of football clubs then fine; I have no problem with that at all.”