by Luke Cawdell

Gillingham chairman Paul Scally has backed the Football League’s decision to impose transfer embargoes on clubs falling behind with their tax payments.

Clubs will be barred from making any player purchases until they have cleared their tax debt in a bid to stem the rising number of administration cases.

Mr Scally (pictured) said: "Administration is a big problem and most teams go into it because they don’t pay their tax bill and the league have put in these regulations to try and control it."

Clubs have given the League permission to monitor their tax affairs directly with HMRC.

League chairman Lord Mawhinney said: "This new regime will provide us with an early warning system. Football generally needs to develop a culture of paying their debts rather than putting them off for another day. This will help our clubs become more financially sustainable in the longer term."

Financial issues saw a number of clubs enter last season with points deductions – something Mr Scally isn’t a supporter of.

He said: "Points deductions don’t help the competition and I would prefer teams to be relegated down a division.

"I don’t like the points deduction scheme, although relegation isn’t straightforward either, as they could go into administration halfway through the season."