Leeds United face new transfer embargo over contract dispute

Although Leeds United is firmly focused on improving for the 2015/16 season, both on and off the pitch, the Championship club is once again caught up in some more controversy.

Just two months after Leeds’s transfer embargo was withdrawn following a six-month period, the club could be faced with another transfer embargo over a contract dispute with former winger Cameron Stewart.

The Professional Footballers’ Association has accused Leeds of not paying wages owed to Stewart after his move to Elland Road was aborted last summer.

Stewart agreed on a three-year permanent transfer from Hull midway through the 2013-14 season, but the Football League returned the signed papers to Leeds after problems were discovered with it.

At the time, former managing director David Haigh had signed the contract, but as he had left the club in April he was therefore no longer registered as an ‘authorised signatory’.

When new owner Massimo Cellino took over the club, he decided to pull the plug on the deal.

The PFA wants the Football League to place a transfer embargo on the West Yorkshire club until they meet the £800k costs awarded to Stewart after a hearing two months ago, The Mirror reports.

During a Football Association arbitration hearing in May, Stewart, now at Ipswich, put a claim against Leeds over loss of earnings when the club withdrew on the permanent transfer deal from Hull, and the difference between his salary at Leeds and the wages he is now on at Ipswich.

Leeds have yet to pay Stewart any compensation, and the PFA are now asking the Football League to prevent them signing any players this summer until payment is made.