Rob Edwards, the Hamilton Academical owner, has revealed the reasons for the William Hill League One club being hit with a FIFA transfer embargo after it was confirmed that sanction and the SPFL signing ban have both been lifted.
Edwards, whose Morley Sports Management group acquired a 97.5 per cent stake in the stricken South Lanarkshire institution from Seref Zengin in January, has also stressed the disciplinary measure that was imposed on Hamilton by world football’s governing body last month was not linked to a historic fraud case.
Accies incurred an automatic season-long SPFL transfer embargo in the July of 2024 for failing to pay their players and defaulting on tax obligations and that punishment was extended for another 12 months last year following an independent disciplinary tribunal.
But that has now been removed and manager Darian MacKinnon - who kept the 152-year-old club, despite the 21 points they had been deducted in the 2025/26 campaign, up in the third tier last month thanks to a play-off final victory over Clyde - will now be able to strengthen his squad with new players this summer.
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“We got confirmation from FIFA last week that the ban has been lifted with immediate effect,” said Edwards. “We provided that confirmation to the SPFL and they have received board approval for the domestic embargo to be removed as well.
“There was a couple of other hurdles that we had to overcome previously to comply and get the domestic embargo removed. But that was the last step. We have ticked every box now. It is a major milestone for Hamilton. It shows compliance and that we know what we're doing.
“It also shows a level of trust with the SPFL. That was obviously a fractured relationship before, but a good working relationship has been created between both parties. We had to accept and believe that they had the club's best interests at heart and they’ve been great with us.
“We've been open and honest and any challenge we've come up against we've been able to, through a consultative approach with the SPFL, find the best resolution and comply. We have made sure there will be no further impact on the club's ability to compete with everyone else.
“Points deductions, embargoes, financial issues, have not created a level playing field. Don’t get me wrong, those things have been Hamilton's fault, but they have not created a level playing field. Hopefully we will be on par with everybody else going forward and will not be hamstrung by any external matters.
“We had agreed contract extensions with players. We couldn't physically offer contracts to any players, but we could talk to players. There are a number of players who we are looking to bring in and now we can do that.”
It was revealed earlier this month that FIFA had issued a global transfer embargo at the same time as it emerged that both they and Police Scotland had been asked to investigate allegations of official documents being forged at the New Douglas Park club in 2023.
Edwards, who is also the chairman of Cymru Premier outfit Haverfordwest County in Wales, has explained the punishment which Hamilton received was a consequence of the inaction of the previous hierarchy and was in no way related to the fraud case.
“The FIFA transfer ban was a result of the club failing to comply with their compliance assessment,” he said. “The club had been sent reminders about completing the assessment for years and they had never responded.
“We only found out in April that back in October, before we came in, the club got a letter from FIFA which basically said, ‘You haven't complied so you have a case with the FIFA disciplinary panel pending’. That obviously resulted in the transfer ban.
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“The ban started on May 27. But it was the result of a disciplinary hearing that the club was told about in a letter they received in October. We only got access to that information in April because we had to go through the fit and proper processes with the SFA. It was only once we did that we realised the club wasn’t compliant.
“The action was a result of the lack of communication from before we came in. We liaised with FIFA after that and uploaded all the information they asked for. We paid a $3,000 fine for multiple historic non-compliance issues. FIFA then checked that everything was all in line.
“So we knew it was coming and we fixed the problem. It happens quite a bit. It has happened to a few clubs down in Wales and it happened with Morton last season. Once they were compliant, the ban was removed. The same thing has happened with us.”
Edwards admitted that he was surprised when he discovered earlier this month that FIFA had been sent forensic handwriting analysis which related to allegations of documents being forged at Hamilton three years ago.
The report of fraud was investigated extensively by Police Scotland – who arrested and then released a 59-year-old man without charge – at the time and was dismissed when “no criminality was established”.
“We'd been speaking to FIFA for weeks and they had never mentioned it to us,” said Edwards. “We had been told nothing about it at all. We knew the embargo was due to a compliance assessment which hadn’t been completed. But the new development with the fraud case was news to us.
“I had absolutely no idea what it was about. I also didn't know why FIFA would have any interest in it whatsoever. There was a police investigation previously and it was dismissed. It relates to somebody who is no longer at the club.
“But we just took our time, tried to understand the situation and made sure we were completely clear about it. We were pretty certain it was absolute b*******, but we wanted to be 101 per cent sure. As crazy and far-fetched as the whole story sounded, nothing would surprise me about this club any more.
“It just threw a spanner in the works to be honest. We had to get double confirmation from FIFA that there wasn’t a separate issue alongside the historical compliance stuff that we had addressed, but there wasn’t. It's completely unrelated to the current club situation. It certainly wasn't a reason for any embargo."
A winding-up petition against Hamilton was removed last month after all outstanding historical liabilities with His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs were settled.
Edwards also stated that there is currently no active legal case involving Document Solutions (Scotland) Limited, a company which former director of football Gerry Strain is a director of, and Hamilton Academical or holding company 1874 Holdings Ltd.
