Gillingham Football Club have moved to clarify the situation around an embargo from the Football League by issuing a statement.

The statement reads:

Chairman Paul Scally has supplied a statement with regards to the club’s EFL embargo.

Whilst the football club is under a form of embargo with the EFL as a result of taking the benefit of the ‘soft’ loan made available from the Premier League in connection with the challenges resulting from COVID, it is not the same form of embargo placed on Clubs for non-payment of debts to HMRC, football creditors, players etc.

The word embargo is probably not the correct wording to be used and we are discussing with the EFL, and Premier League, a more appropriate form of wording, as this is not a penal embargo against GFC.

In fact a number of Clubs accepted the benefit of the loan, and like them we are repaying same at monthly intervals over a two year period. It is a monitored loan and whilst there are some conditions which are confidential, they do not impact on the Club’s ability to bring players in or send out to/from the Club, albeit that can generally only be done during a transfer window.