Championship side Reading have received a six points deduction by the English Football Federation for breaching the terms of an agreed business plan for a previous profit and sustainability rule breach. This is the first major decision handed down by the independent club financial reporting unit (CFRU).

This deduction will leave Reading in the 20th position at the Championship table, with 40 points, keeping them just one point above the relegation zone. The manager Paul Ince also said last week that he thinks they will receive a punishment very soon. Reading have also agreed a new budget with the CFRU, which can only be set once the club's full profit and sustainability review has been completed for the current season. The club has also taken full blame and has also accepted that they had not "sufficiently satisfied" elements of the planned budget.

Their statement 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. As a result, the independent club financial review panel has been unable to ratify that the club has met its forecast for compliance.”

John Potterill-Tilney, the director of the CFRU said, “I would like to thank the club for its transparency and cooperation during this process and the club financial review panel for helping us deliver an agreed sanction in just over one month since submissions were provided.”

He added, “This decision and sanction, as confirmed by the club financial review panel in a short time frame, within the relevant season, will now give the club clarity to plan for the period ahead, on and off the pitch. The EFL's regulations establish the CFRP as an independent panel with the responsibility of reviewing the financial performance of EFL clubs.”