SWINDON Town CEO Rob Angus says the club is “very close” to removing a significant part of the transfer embargo preventing his team from signing players on long-term contracts.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wiltshire’s Talk of the Town programme on Tuesday night, Angus explained that Swindon’s transfer embargo is effectively split into two halves. One half relates to three EFL regulations that were broken by the previous regime, while the other half is in force due to £1million of hardship fund that the club has received from the EFL in the past year.

Town’s CEO said that once the first half is sorted, Swindon will be able to sign players on loan for the full season while offering long-term contracts to those the club wants to bring in permanently.

Angus then clarified that the embargo cannot be lifted in full until owner Clem Morfuni has paid the interest-free loan back to the EFL as well.

Angus said: “We can still sign players – as you’ve seen in the last few days – but you’re restricted on the loan signings and can only sign players on loan until January, and you can only offer a one-year deal.

“There’s a wage restriction as well which applies to the other embargo. We’re very close to getting everything the EFL needs to review taking us off that embargo.

“We’ve paid all the wages – Clem did that on Monday – we’ve agreed a payment plan with HMRC and made the first payment on that, we’ve made the first rent payment on the County Ground for quite a while to the council, we’ve pretty much sorted all of the football creditors as well.”

Town have signed two players since Morfuni took over – Ben Gladwin and Lewis Ward – with both signing one-year deals at the County Ground.

Further reinforcements are expected to arrive before Town travel to Scunthorpe United on August 7, and those players could sign two or three-year deals should the EFL clear part of the embargo in the next few days – something Angus expects to happen.

Angus said: “We’re now in a position where once we submit a financial forecast – and a letter of support from Clem confirming that he’ll fund the club for the next two years – then we think the EFL will have everything they need to lift the first embargo.

“The other embargo relates to the hardship loans that the club has received, and those loans – which don’t attract any interest – they need to be re-paid before that second embargo, which is about wage restrictions, can be lifted.”