Reading in relegation fight after being docked 6 points for financial issues

Reading's survival in the Championship has been plunged into danger after the Royals were handed a six-point deduction on Tuesday for a breach of the English Football League's financial rules.

The sanction relates to the club's failure to meet the terms of a business plan agreed following a breach of the profit and sustainability limits in 2021.

The initial breach carried a six-point penalty last season, with a further six points suspended until the current campaign.

As a result, Reading drop from 46 points to 40, leaving them just one above the relegation zone in 20th.

"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," Reading said in a statement.

Between 2017 and 2021, Reading lost £58 million ($72 million), breaching the EFL's limit for that period of £39 million.

The club have been under a transfer embargo since the summer of 2021.

The sanction is the first handed out by the Independent Club Financial Review Panel, which has been set up to ensure EFL clubs’ compliance with financial regulations.