Leeds’s season went from bad to worse yesterday after they found out that they, along with Blackburn and Nottingham Forest, have been issued a transfer ban.

The league announced that due to the three clubs breaching the Football League’s financial fair play (FFP) rules, they would be unable to sign any player — on a permanent deal or loan — in the January transfer window.

All clubs incurred financial losses of more than £8 million last season.

The three promoted clubs Queens Park Rangers, Leicester and Burnley as well as the three relegated clubs Fulham, Norwich and Cardiff have all submitted their books and will now be considered by the Football League.

Under the embargoes, the clubs will be allowed to sign players if they have 24 or fewer “established players,” — players aged 21 or over that have made at least five starts for the club.

But the players signed cannot be for a fee and cannot cost the club more than £600,000 a year.

Blackburn’s managing director Derek Shaw said in a statement: “While 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.

“We feel we have the scouting network that can cope with that.”

The clubs will have their embargoes lifted at the end of the season if they can demonstrate they have stayed within the maximum permitted losses of £6m — £3m losses plus £3m covered by shareholder investment — for the current season.

Last month, Championship clubs agreed a new set of FFP guidelines to allow clubs to lose up to £15m across three seasons without detailing how the loss will be funded.

The changes come into effect from the 2016-17 season.