Birmingham docked nine points by EFL

Birmingham City have been given a nine-point deduction by the EFL for breaking the league's financial rules with regards to profitability and sustainability.

The review, carried out by the EFL, showed that the Midlands based club had recorded losses of more than 39 million pounds for the three seasons from 2015/16 to 2017/18. As a result of exceeding the maximum 39 million threshold, the club was charged back on 14th August 2018 with breaching these rules. There was a hearing last Monday and Birmingham pleaded guilty to the charge and after hearing representations from both parties, the EFL panel has imposed this deduction.

An EFL spokesman said that Birmingham were "the only club to have breached those requirements, when it incurred adjusted losses of 48.787 million pounds, 9.787 million in excess of the permitted losses."

These rules were brought in for the 2015/16 season and are aligned with those in the Premier League. The EFL also confirmed that it had the opportunity to consider all relevant factors including the Club's mitigation.

The league table has been updated and Birmingham are now in 18th place on 41 points, just five points above safety with eight games left when they were previously seven points off the play-offs. That said, Birmingham have 14 days to appeal the verdict and the updated table will be modified if any appeal is successful. 

 

March 22, 2019