Standard Liege have been hit with another transfer ban over unpaid player wages as the American group 777 Partner’s protracted takeover of Everton rumbles on.
That’s according to De Tijd, who cover the situation at the Belgian club today and provide their own information on the matter.
The newspaper label Standard Liege as a ‘capsizing’ club at this moment in time, with them being hit with a transfer ban due to unpaid bills.
The club finds themselves ‘in the dark’ thanks to their American owners, who are in the crosshairs of various creditors and facing corruption allegations in the USA.
That’s affected the clubs they own, and Standard are one of them, with the licensing committee in Belgium electing to ban them from transfer business for the second time in the last year.
Their monthly inspection showed that Standard have not paid their social security contributions and are withholding tax and a transfer debt. These are amounts for March that should have been paid in April.
Standard’s management have reported that they’ve been sanctioned because the club was unable to provide all proof of payment within the specified period.
“The club will work towards lifting the sanction in the coming days. We expect this to have no impact on the summer transfer window. It is also important to specify that this sanction does not call into question the license obtained for next season,” their statement said.
De Tijd report that is a ‘very disguised version of the truth’, however. They have learned that Standard are currently ‘looking at the bottom of the fund’.
According to their information the club has large outstanding invoices with its suppliers and players were told on Monday, in a meeting with director of football Fergal Harkin, that the club has no more money, and they cannot be paid.
It is also unclear whether 777 Partners will come up with the money, with reports earlier this week stating that they’ve been difficult to contact in recent weeks.
Yet again it’s a concerning turn of events for Everton, who must surely believe that the group are not the correct buyers for the club moving forwards.
Reports in England have current Everton owner Farhad Moshiri as considering his options, and perhaps this latest development, the latest in a growing list of them this week alone, will help sway that thinking.
