Cherries’ ongoing transfer embargo has today finally been loosened by the Football League, confirmed the club’s chief executive Neill Blake.

League chiefs agreed to reduce the severity of the ban after Cherries chairman Eddie Mitchell sourced funds to clear outstanding tax arrears earlier this week.

Mitchell approached the league after the club had settled a debt of £314,000 to HM Revenue & Customs, with a winding-up petition to be dismissed next week.

As a result, Cherries’ embargo will now revert to the level it was at when the club came out of administration in August 2008.

At the time, the previous owners had to agree to all transfer activity being monitored for three seasons as a condition of the club keeping its place in the Football League.

But while the club was subject to a rolling embargo to start with, the noose was tightened fully 14 months ago after the club had signed five players in January 2009.

Since then, only the addition of emergency loans have been granted in extreme circumstances, with this luxury afforded to the club on just three occasions.

While the rolling embargo will be in force for another 16 months, the easing of the ban gives Cherries licence to request both permanent and loan signings.

However, as the loan transfer window closed yesterday, clubs will not be permitted to add to their squads until the summer.

Cherries are understood to have completed the paperwork on two signings ahead of the deadline with the league today sanctioning an extension to Rhoys Wiggins’s loan stay.

A decision on the second player – an unnamed and untried teenage striker from a Championship club – is expected to be made early next week.

Wiggins, who has spent two months with Cherries, will remain at Dean Court until the start of May. His spell will expire following Cherries’ home game against Port Vale and cannot be extended any further.