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Exeter in trouble again
Exeter City are currently banned from signing new players and were hoping that agreements recently made with the FA would allow them to lift the ban reports the Exeter Express and Echo.
The club announced in April that it was on the brink of having the ban lifted - until ex-boss Neil McNab contacted the Conference to complain about the £17,000 he was still owed.
Now that McNab's claim has been incorporated into their Corporate Voluntary Agreement (CVA), the Grecians thought the FA would cancel the embargo.
But the FA's compliance unit has now written to Exeter to tell them the ban must remain in place, because of the £7,629 owed to City's former assistant commercial manager Gui Rivaud.
Rivaud worked at St James's Park for just six weeks last year before being sacked by former chairman John Russell for alleged "industrial espionage".
Exeter vice-chairman Julian Tagg explained: "I said to the FA's compliance unit that it was becoming ridiculous. It doesn't seem right that they can keep coming up with a new person to stop us from having the embargo lifted. When I started to have a real go at them, they said they would look at it again.
"We've got our solicitors looking at it, but we don't believe that he (Rivaud) is a football creditor.
John Moules of the Conference explained that, because Rivaud was sacked rather than his contract terminated by mutual consent, he falls into the category of football creditor.
"This is an FA rule and a rule that the Conference aren't overly keen on," he added. "We have treated Exeter fairly, as we would all other clubs, and we are just acting on the instructions of the FA.
"Exeter can get the ban lifted at any time as soon as the football creditors are settled."