- The Kop Times - Daily LFC Transfer News and Gossips

Liverpool have been fined £100,000 and have been hit with 2-year transfer ban on signing academy players after they allegedly tapped up a Stoke City schoolboy against the rules of the FA. The Reds will be banned from signing any academy players who have been registered with a Premier League or EFL club in the previous 18 months. The second year of this ban will be suspended for a three-year period.

The Premier League were investigating claims about Liverpool having offered a banned inducement to a 12-year old, with a serious allegation that the Reds reneged on an agreement to pay the boy’s school fees.

The incident dates back to summer of 2016 when Stoke were already paying the boy’s school fees. The Reds indicated that they were interested in doing the same, if the boy joined them, and promised the young lad that they would do so until he turned 16.

However, there was a rule that was introduced last summer which forbids the practice of clubs paying the fees of a particular child. It was said that the clubs have to offer to pay for all the school children in their academy to be educated privately. Liverpool’s offer for the 12-year old boy has clearly violated this rule.

Liverpool then pulled out of the deal and left the boy struggling when they discovered that they had breached the FA rule.

Now Liverpool have been fined £100,000 and have been given a two-year transfer ban on signing academy players from other clubs.

This is such a major blow for Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool as the German manager is someone who heavily relies on young talents coming through at the academy. The German is currently in his first full season in charge of the Reds and the next two summers are crucial for him as he would surely be looking to strengthen the core team and also the academy.

Now that the club have been hit with a ban, it is safe to assume that the current players in the academy would get one more year to prove their worth at Anfield, with the second year of the ban being suspended for three years. Liverpool are well known for producing young English talents from their academy and it will surely not stop in the future as well.

The ban seems to have been given on lenient terms and this will ensure that no other club commits such errors in the future.

For now, all is well at Anfield.