The Football League has said it is in ongoing discussions with Leicester City over whether it has met the 2013-14 financial fair play (FFP) rules, after the club posted a £20.8m loss and said that with adjustments, it is “in compliance” with the regulations. The league has not confirmed whether these discussions specifically involve a deal highlighted by Leicester as having been lucrative, for “long-term international marketing and licensing” with a company called Trestellar Limited.

The club cited that deal as part of its explanation for an £11.6m increase in income, from £19.6m in 2013 to £31.2m in 2013-14, the year Leicester gained promotion under the ownership of the Thai businessman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha of the King Power duty-free companies.

Football League FFP rules sanction clubs that make losses greater than £8m for the 2013-14 season, and after their £34m loss in 2012-13 Leicester were expected by many to be facing a heavy fine. However, the club argues that with the increase in income, including from the Trestellar deal, and allowable expenditure on their academy and other costs, the losses are “within the allowable parameters” of the league.

Leicester, whose accounts are not yet available for public viewing at Companies House, said in the statement: “This increase has arisen from growth in almost all the club’s sources of income, including the signing of a long-term international marketing and licensing deal with Trestellar Limited.”

A Companies House check reveals that Trestellar Limited is a very small, new company, formed two years ago and registered on the Shepcote Office Village business park in Sheffield. It does not have a website nor does it actually have a telephone number. One of its early directors in 2013 was Sir Dave Richards, the former Premier League chairman who is a friend of Srivaddhanaprabha and has given advice to Leicester City although never in any official role at the club.

As a name, Trestellar has some similarities to Richards’ former company in Sheffield, Three Star Engineering, which went into administrative receivership in 2001. Richards was a director of Trestellar for just three days in March 2013, and his son, David, continued as a director until 23 January this year, when he resigned. David Richards Jnr and his sister, Lisa, are the two equal co-owners of Trestellar, according to Companies House records.

On the day David Richards resigned as a Trestellar director six weeks ago, the company’s sole director was appointed. John Sidebottom, 58, was previously a director with Sir Dave Richards at Three Star Engineering, where he cited his occupation as a salesman. Sidebottom’s previous directorships were at a company called Buzz Plastic Products limited, in Barnsley, where he described his occupation as a general manager.

Trestellar does not have its own telephone number, but is registered at the same address as David Richards Jnr’s graphic design and marketing company, Glue. Glue’s website says that it was set up in 2001, originally specialising in design for print, and the FA and Premier League logos appear in its list of clients.

“Our latest development is in the field of strategic marketing where we are currently exploring and exploiting global opportunities for our clients,” the company says.

David Richards Jnr answered the telephone at Glue and, while confirming that he and his sister own Trestellar, that it is based at the same address and does not currently have its own website or telephone number, declined to comment about it or the Leicester deal.

A Leicester spokesman said Trestellar had been selected as the company to market the club internationally against competition from others: “The club agreed its exciting international marketing and licensing partnership with Trestellar Limited in January 2014, following an extensive tender process to identify a party best-suited to extending its commercial reach worldwide. The deal, which runs for five and a half years, allows the club to monetise its unique brand in traditional UK markets and internationally – particularly in the Far East, where the club’s ownership and profile create exceptional potential for growth.”

Leicester did not specifically answer a question about why Trestellar was chosen given that it is a small company on a Sheffield business park with only Sidebottom as a director. But they said: “It is a standard practice for the club to carry out due diligence on prospective commercial partners during such tender processes and we were entirely satisfied with Trestellar’s business operation.”

Neither the club nor Richards would discuss how much Trestellar has paid to Leicester up front for the right to market it internationally, nor how Trestellar raised that money.

“We have maintained a consistent dialogue with the Football League before and after the submission of our compliant financial fair play return,” the spokesman said. “We expect this process to be concluded shortly.”

A league spokesman declined to comment, except to say that “ongoing discussions are continuing”.