Sheffield Wednesday have been placed under an EFL embargo after failing to make payments to HMRC, according to the EFL’s website.
The regulation, 17.3, reads as follows: Consequences of a Default Event. Without prejudice to the general position (pursuant to Regulation 44.4) that all registrations must be approved by The League, a Club which is subject to a Default Event shall be subject to a registration embargo such that it shall not be permitted to register any Player with that Club without the prior written consent of The League for the period that the Club is subject to a Default Event.
Currently, two other sides in the EFL are both under embargos. Reading and Sutton United are also listed with regulation 17.3- amounts due to HMRC.
As per The Star, it poses a real question about the immediate availability of Momo Diaby and Marvin Johnson. The latter failed to make the 25-man squad registration at the start of the campaign under Xisco Muñoz. Only as recently as yesterday did Danny Rohl hint at the former Middlesborough man’s future.
But that now looks under severe jeopardy, as the Owls cannot register any further players until the embargo is sorted. Whether the EFL will have any leeway on this particular scenario has yet to be confirmed, but it is a situation that requires clarity.
The Owls have made a dreadful return to the Championship thus far, rooted to the foot of the table. After 13 games they are already 11 points adrift of safety, and this latest development has further rocked Wednesday.
On Wednesday evening, they made a positive start at Plymouth Argyle but fell two goals behind before the interval in the final knockings of the half. Ryan Hardie added a third with fourteen minutes to play; Wednesday have now lost ten in the league and are yet to win with only one game to play in October.
Writer’s View
The timing of this latest development is perhaps the biggest blow to what has already been a disastrous campaign for Wednesday, on and off the pitch. With a huge South Yorkshire derby to come on Sunday, the attention should have been fully focused on their meeting with Rotherham United.
Now, the ramifications of this will take centre stage at Hillsborough for the next 24 hours at least. What this does do is highlight the complexity of the task that Rohl has on his hands, if he wasn’t already aware of the restlessness surrounding the club.
