Royals' gamble has cost them so much

PAUL Ince is justifiably outraged by Reading’s six-point deduction. It had absolutely nothing to do with him.

But the club? They are bang to rights. When Reading were docked an initial six-points for breaching profit and sustainability rules in November 2021, they signed up to an EFL business plan designed to slam the brakes on years of reckless overspending.

Failure to comply carried a suspended six-point penalty, and it is this sanction that has now been enforced.

When the news broke on Tuesday, Reading issued a statement that mixed contrite acceptance with thinly-concealed dissent.

“We have worked closely with the EFL and the independent Club Financial Review Unit to achieve the targets set out in the agreed business plan,” it read. “However, the club accepts that it has not sufficiently satisfied certain elements of the planned budget.”

Peppered with phrases like ‘radical changes’, ‘lessons learned’ and ‘rigid adherence’, the inference is that Reading strained every sinew to cut costs and were simply victims of an inflexible system. But the truth is, they gambled and lost. Again.

Reading’s first and most catastrophic throw of the dice came in the summer of 2019. Having lost £51m over the previous two seasons, the Royals required a £13m profit just to meet the EFL’s permitted loss limit of £38m over three seasons.