Sheffield Wednesday have been placed under transfer embargo – THIS is why and what’s next

The club were placed under a registration embargo by the EFL last month along with a raft of other Championship clubs.

Reports suggest the other clubs in question were Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Cardiff City, Coventry City, Derby County, Huddersfield Town, Luton Town, Reading and Stoke City.

The transfer window closed at the end of January but clubs were allowed to register free agent signings until well into last month.

And The Star understands that, alongside a number of other clubs, a ban is still in operation at Hillsborough and has been placed on Wednesday because of the late status of their 2019/20 accounts.

The filing of the accounts has been offset by those of the 2018/19 season, which were submitted several months late last month, having been held up in legal wrangling following their appeal over a points deduction.

The Star understand that there is no cause for panic at the club over the embargo, which they are confident will be resolved by the time the transfer window reopens for the summer, meaning their future plans and forthcoming transformation of the first team squad would be unaffected.

The reasons behind the other clubs’ embargoes are not known at this time, though many are assumed to have been slapped on by the EFL for a similar reason to Wednesday.

Last week the Owls’ relegation rivals Coventry City released a statement confirming that they had been placed under embargo while explaining they had take a Government option to file company accounts with a three month delay.

It has been reported that Huddersfield Town are no longer under the terms of an embargo.

Questions have been raised over the integrity of the division given the number of clubs – almost half the division – that have been slapped with the transfer ban.

Wednesday trialled free agents Danny Simpson and Ravel Morrison last month. Simpson signed for Bristol City, while Morrison remains clubless.

Owls boss Darren Moore said neither player was ‘for them’ at the time and that there were concerns over the pair’s fitness and their suitability to being thrown into a relegation scrap at such a late stage.

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