A football finance expert has claimed that Championship side Sheffield Wednesday could already have been placed under a "soft" transfer embargo, despite not yet having released their latest financial accounts.
According to Kieran Maguire, a football finance lecturer at the University of Liverpool, could find themselves in a similar situation to last season, when they were placed in an embargo after exceeding the EFL's profit and sustainability rules after exceeding the maximum permitted loss of £39million in a three year period.
Speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield's Football Heaven show, Maguire said: "I suspect that Wednesday are already under an embargo.
"And what they will have to do is to demonstrate to the EFL that they have taken some steps to reduce those losses."
Maguire went onto explain the potential response of the EFL if Wednesday can indeed show the steps they have taken to reduce losses, adding: "And then the EFL might say, OK, well we'll either take you away from the soft embargo altogether, or it will be renewed for a further six or twelve months and we'll take it from there."
According to Maguire however, the situation is not as serious for Wednesday as it is for fellow Championship side Birmingham, who face a twelve points deduction over their own breaches of FFP and the purchase of full back Kristian Pedersen for £2.4million, with Maguire explaining: "Wednesday abided by the rules - Derby County abided, assuming that they were an embargo as well - but Birmingham City just appeared to show two fingers to the authorities (in signing Pedersen) and that's made the rest of the division very angry".
The verdict
This is a blow to Wednesday but it could have been much worse. Now that Steve Bruce has arrived this is a squad that already looks more than capable of competing in this division, and the case of Birmingham means that clubs must surely now take even more care with their finances, you also wonder whether Bruce would have agreed to join the club had they been facing a similar situation as his old one.