Reading have been deducted six points with immediate effect over a historical breach of the EFL’s profitability and sustainability limits. It leaves the club, who have taken two points from their past six matches, one point above the relegation zone.
The sanction relates to Reading’s failure to meet an agreed budget after a breach of the financial rules in 2021. The initial breach carried a six-point penalty with a further six points suspended until this season. The club said they faced “a huge fight” to stay up.
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The independent club financial review panel, overseeing a case for the first time in the EFL, determined Reading had not generated enough money from player sales and were relying on a proposed deal that had not been completed by a 1 March deadline to satisfy their commitments.
Reading, who are owned by the Chinese businessman Dai Yongge, said: “Despite radical changes implemented at first-team level and right across the structure of the business to its very core – and a rigid adherence to a strict league-monitored wage structure and transfer embargo – the club accepts that it has not sufficiently satisfied certain elements of the planned budget.
“In abiding by the EFL rules, the club have not spent a penny on transfer fees since the summer of 2020 and have not paid a loan fee to any club since the summer of 2019. Our squad has been entirely rebuilt from free transfers, free loanees and academy graduates.
“We have worked closely with the EFL and the independent club financial review unit throughout the process in our aims to achieve the targets set out in the agreed business plan and every reasonable effort has been made to construct a competitive squad of players while avoiding further punishment. However, despite the substantial progress we have undeniably made and the lessons that have indeed been learned, as promised, we accept that the situation was never going to be easily or quickly fixed.”
The club, who are managed by Paul Ince, called for their fans’ backing across the final seven matches: “We find ourselves with another huge fight on our hands. We will need our fans’ support once more.”
