Liverpool have been banned from signing English Academy players for two years and fined £100,000 after being found guilty of tapping up a Stoke City schoolboy.
The Premier League held an investigation into a claim that 12-year-old was offered a forbidden inducement to move from The Potteries last summer, with the serious allegation made that Liverpool reneged on an agreement to pay his school fees when they did not sign him.
But the sanction that has been imposed on Liverpool stems from the club accepting that they spoke to the player and his family before they were permitted to; this included them paying for him and some of his family to watch a game at Anfield.