How the situation at Hull City affects Wigan Athletic - with ramifications for Charlie Hughes and Joe Gelhardt

The reason for the punishment - which means Hull will not be able to pay a fee for a player until January 2027 - comes as a result of their late payments to Aston Villa over the loan of winger Louie Barry last season.

Although that debt - believed to be around £1million - has now been paid, it's understood the club also owe money to other creditors, including clubs for previous transfers, which led to the EFL stepping in.

"We can confirm that we have received notification from the EFL that we are subject to a transfer embargo & a three-window fee restriction with immediate effect,” confirmed Hull in a statement on Friday morning.

"We will appeal the three-window fee restriction & are confident of resolving the matter as soon as possible.”

Regulation 52.2.3 reads: "If a club is in default of payments due to another club (or club) under a transfer or compensation agreement the club shall be subject to a registration embargo such that it shall not be permitted to register any player with that club without the prior written consent of the league until such time as the agreement is honoured."

The development will be of huge interest to Latics - for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, Charlie Hughes joined the Tigers last summer for £3.5million, when the buy-out clause in his contract was met.

With most transfer fees now being paid in instalments, Latics will be waiting in line for money that will have been budgeted for.

The EFL do try to protect affected clubs in instances like this, in terms of solidarity money which they can hold onto and pay those that are owed money directly.

Hull could, of course, elect to cash in on any of their assets to generate much-needed funds, which again would affect Latics, who hold a sell-on from the sale of Hughes.

However, a necessary sale would be rather less preferable than from a position of strength in terms of the fee received - and in turn the percentage Latics would receive.

Another factor to consider would be the embargo placed on Hull, which means they are only able to sign free agents or loans - meaning losing key members of their team would only be considered as a last resort.

On top of this, Hull were also expected to push for the permanent capture of striker Joe Gelhardt from Leeds United this summer.

The Latics Academy product spent the second half of last term on loan at Hull, and played a key role in them avoiding relegation to League One on the last day.

Latics also hold a sell-on from the £1million deal that saw Gelhardt move to Leeds in the summer of 2020 which, with the Elland Road outfit reportedly wanting around four times that figure to sell him, could prove very lucrative indeed.

However, with the Tigers now seemingly out of the race they were leading, Latics can only now wait and see if any other clubs seize the opportunity to try to land the 23-year-old.