Swindon Town placed under transfer embargo after breaking five EFL regulations

The County Ground club broke regulations including; failure to provide audited annual accounts, annual accounts not filed with Companies House, defaults in payments to HMRC, non-payment to football creditors, and failure to submit SCMP (Salary Cap Management Protocol) calculation.

Town will therefore no longer be able to pay a transfer fee for a player and must sign players who are either not registered with another club or who arrive on loan.

Managerless Swindon will be allowed to have up to 23 players of what the EFL call ‘professional standing’ in their squad, but none of these players can be signed for longer than the end of the current campaign if signed on permanent deals.

Meanwhile, loan players can only be signed for half a season at a time. Should Town try to sign a loan player, they will not be able to pay a fee – often referred to as a loan fee – nor would they be able to pay additional wages on top of the salary the player receives at his parent club.

Should Swindon require signings outside of the summer transfer window, they will only be allowed to sign free agents and they would only be able to register those players if they have fewer than 16 players of professional standing, which includes two goalkeepers and 14 outfield players.

Town are still allowed to register academy players, scholars, and non-first-team players. They are also still allowed to upgrade any of the aforementioned category players to a first professional contract.

Clubs are now named on the EFL’s website if they are placed under embargo after a vote was passed in June to amend the regulations in the interests of transparency and good governance.

Once all five of Town’s regulation breaches have been resolved, the transfer embargo will be lifted.

Two of the club’s League Two rivals are also on the EFL’s transfer embargo list – Oldham Athletic and Scunthorpe United – though the reasons for that are not currently available.