Luton Town have issued a statement reacting to news report that the club was placed under a transfer embargo.

The Hatters were one of 10 Championship clubs named in this morning’s Daily Mail as facing a transfer embargo.

The news has come about as while a number of clubs have taken advantage of a Companies House statutory filing deadline for additional time to complete their covid-affected 2019/20 accounts, the EFL has taken a harder line and had a late February deadline as in normal times.

However, reports have said that the embargo would be lifted when the accounts are filed with Companies House.

In their statement, Luton Town said that the accounts were finalised but had yet to be signed off by the club’s auditors, and that they expected to have them filed within the next few weeks.

They also stated that they expect the matter to be resolved soon, and that it makes no difference to either everyday operations at Luton Town or to the club’s summer transfer window plans.

The club said, “Our first embargo for a decade is simply an anomaly brought about by an unsynchronised timing of financial reports due to the pandemic. 

“The Club’s 2019/20 accounts, whilst finalised, have yet to be signed off by our auditors which will be done well before the statutory deadline.

“Given the exceptionally difficult operating environment caused by the pandemic and the requirement to continue to play “behind closed doors”, financial forecasts have rightly been scrutinised much more thoroughly, and Companies House provided an extension of the statutory filing deadline to June to create sufficient time to complete this additional work accurately. Indeed, the club will publish unqualified accounts before the end of April.

“However, EFL rules couldn’t be adjusted to meet the Companies House extension and require that signed accounts still needed to be submitted in March, which the club was unable to achieve. The matter will be resolved as our auditors conclude the report in the next couple of weeks.

“We would like to reassure all of our supporters that this situation will not affect any of the Club’s plans for the summer transfer window, which does not open until the end of the current season, and makes no difference to the day-to-day running of the Club currently. There is certainly no ‘financial Armageddon’, as the article’s headline sensationally claims, at Kenilworth Road.”