Transfer Ban Lifted, Say Livingston

Livingston say they have had their transfer embargo lifted after settling a tax bill.

Livingston were fined £10,000 and deducted five Scottish Championship points on November 24 after pleading guilty to breaching three Scottish Professional Football League rules relating to non-payment of tax.

A club statement on New Year's Day read: It was a happy new year for Livingston as our SPFL signing embargo was finally lifted last night.

The ban was initially imposed after we discovered several untaxed payments had been made to players by a former club director during our time in the lower leagues.

We gave full disclosure to the SPFL as soon as the payments came to light but were still penalised with a signing ban until such time as full recompense was made to HMRC.

Our accountants, Curle and Co, finally completed negotiations with HMRC and our chairman, Gordon McDougall, personally made full payment on the agreed sum yesterday afternoon.

We now look forward to functioning normally again in 2015, now this handicap has been removed.''