Nottingham Forest have won a £250,000 January transfer pot following a competition run via Sky Bet, despite being hit with an embargo for the winter window.
Forest, one of three Championship clubs who have been banned from signing players in January after breaching the Football League’s financial fair play rules, were picked at random from a shortlist of nine teams to win the prize at Wembley on Tuesday.
However, they will not be allowed to use the money on transfer fees or loan fees after recording losses of more than £8m during the 2013-14 season.
Blackburn Rovers and Leeds United have also been sanctioned by the league, and neither are permitted to sign anyone permanently or on loan for the rest of the season unless they have 24 or fewer players established players in their squads.
In these circumstances clubs are allowed to make additional signings where the employee costs of a player being signed are less than £600,000 per annum and with no transfer or loan fee paid.
In such circumstances Forest would be able to spend the £250,000 on wages for free or loan signings.
