Sheffield Wednesday: Prolonged transfer embargo avoided after HMRC action taken | OneFootball

The Owls failed to make a payment to the government body at the end of October.

Sheffield Wednesday have paid off the outstanding debt that they owed to HMRC and therefore avoided a lengthy transfer embargo, according to The Star.

On Halloween evening, Owls fans were hit with a bit of a jumpscare by the EFL, who announced that Wednesday had been placed under a registration embargo for a missed payment to HMRC.

This was the second time in as many years that this sort of issue has affected the club, but they quickly came out and addressed the issue, stating, via The Star, that it would be resolved "imminently."

Because it was an issue relating to amounts owed to HMRC and not something more serious like a failure to pay players and/or other staff members on time, it was reported that Wednesday were under no threat of further sanction. However, failure to resolve this issue in an efficient manner could have cause the club a lot of problems.

They have now sorted the situation, according to reports.

Sheffield Wednesday facing extended transfer embargo

Wednesday are said to have paid off the money that they owed to HMRC, as per The Star, and will no longer be under their current transfer embargo, or at threat of the three-window long embargo that they faced, had they failed to make the payment before the end of the 30-day period.

The 30-day rule was brought in last summer, and it allows clubs roughly a month, after they notify the EFL of a missed payment to HMRC, to resolve the issue.

The EFL set out the guidelines for this regulation on their website: "The non-payment of HMRC debt has been added as a trigger of Regulation 52.6, so Clubs who accumulate 30 days of late payments in a 12-month period will be unable to sign a player for a fee or any consideration for three full transfer windows.

"The amendment to the 30-Day Rule also provides for Clubs to self-report late payment of any debt covered by Regulation 52.6, plus a right of appeal for Clubs triggering the 30-Day Rule."

Clubs have two days to notify the EFL of a missed payment to HMRC. So, given that the EFL's statement on the current Wednesday embargo came on 31st October, we can safely say that they had until the end of November, somewhere between 28th and 30th, to make the missed payment.

The last transfer window saw the Owls do a lot of business, bringing in a total of 11 players.

Sheffield Wednesday missed payment issues could do reputational damage

The registration embargo that was on the club wasn't going to affect them much anyway, as manager Danny Rohl previously said that he was not looking at the free agent market, which are the only type of players they'd be able to sign right now as we are currently not in a transfer window.

They now have the issue solved, according to reports. But regardless of that, it's not a good look to be missing payments to HMRC, especially because they've done it twice in a two-year period now.

Now, is this something that will impact on players' feelings on moving to Hillsborough? Probably not. The current playing staff and other members of the club have been paid on time, and that's almost all they are likely to care about when it comes to this sort of scenario. But it's still not a great optic.