Championship trio Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and Blackburn Rovers have been placed under a transfer embargo by the Football League after breaking Financial Fair Play regulations.
All Football League clubs had to submit their financial results for the 2013-14 season by the start of this month and the League confirmed this morning that Leeds, Forest and Blackburn had exceeded the permitted £8m loss.
The three clubs will be unable to sign any new players on permanent or loan deals unless they have more than 25 players who are over the age of 21 and have made at least five starts for the club.
If the above term is met, the clubs can only sign a player if the cost per year is less than £600,000.
Blackburn released a statement accepting the decision of the League and managing director Derek Shaw said: "Whilst the ruling will clearly present some difficulties, we will of course respect the rules of the Football League.
"A lot of effort and hard work has been done to reduce player costs over the last two years, but we have wanted to rebuild and challenge in this division at the same time, and we will continue to do that."
The trio will be able to lift the embargo at the end of the current season if they can prove that their losses are under the permitted £6m for the 2014-15 term.
The League also confirmed that discussions are happening with several other clubs, while the three promoted teams (Leicester City, Burnley and Queens Park Rangers) and three relegated sides (Barnsley, Doncaster Rovers and Yeovil Town) will now be investigated.
