Why Sheffield Wednesday have been allowed to announce short-term signing of Bristol City goalkeeper Joe Lumley
Sheffield Wednesday have announced the seven-day loan of goalkeeper Joe Lumley from Bristol City.
The 30-year-old stopper arrives to play in Wednesday evening’s Championship clash at home to Middlesbrough, his former club, after emergency signing Ethan Horvath was sent off at Charlton Athletic on Saturday. Wednesday are under stringent recruitment restrictions at current but have been allowed to make the signing on an emergency basis due to the lack of senior available goalkeeper at S6.
Horvath arrived at the club last month in light of a serious injury to Pierce Charles. The unavailability of both players would have left Logan Stretch as the most likely candidate for the Boro game but the Wales youth cap is yet to play a men’s game at professional level. Killian Barrett has National League experience but is only recently back from injury.
The Owls are the subject of an EFL registration embargo that has prevented the signing of players previously, with five EFL regulation breaches listed on their embargo reporting service site. But goalkeepers are treated as a special case and are treated differently under embargo.
Wording from the EFL reads as follows; “In line with Regulation 57, Clubs can register an Emergency Goalkeeper Loan if they don’t have any Professional Goalkeepers available due to injuries, suspensions or international call-ups.
“Professional Goalkeeper = a goalkeeper (excluding any Goalkeeper registered as a Non-Contract Player) who has been named in the starting eleven on five or more occasions by: any Club (or Premier League club) in any matches in the relevant league or first team cup competitions (other than the EFL Trophy); and/or any other club in a professional league in that club’s home association (by way of example, any division of the Scottish Professional Football League, or Serie A, B or C).”