Birmingham City are to be docked nine points by the EFL as punishment for breaching profitability and sustainability rules, i.e Financial Fair Play.
According to BBC West Midlands, the club have made losses in excess of £13million a year over a three-year period, which is not allowed under EFL FFP rules.
It should come as no surprise that the breach dates back to the tenure of Harry Redknapp in 2017/18, who has moved quickly to absolve himself of any blame.
Speaking to the Telegraph earlier this week, Redknapp claimed it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with him because he doesn’t even really know what FFP is:
It’s surely down to the people who run the club, like the chief executive and the chairman, or whoever, to know if we’ve got any money to spend.
I didn’t know anything about Financial Fair Play. I was never warned by anyone at the football club that there was going to be a problem with that.
There were three lads from Brentford that came in [Jota, Harlee Dean and Maxime Colin] – they were all good players but they weren’t on my shopping list.
I’d never even see any of them play, they were brought in by other people above my head.
We bought in Isaac Vassell for £1million [from Luton Town], and he will be worth massive money in my opinion. He was an absolute bargain, but I can’t even take credit for that because he was nothing to do with me, to be truthful.
I don’t think any of the signings were mine. I was taking John Ruddy on a free transfer from Norwich and instead they brought in David Stockdale from Brighton. The director of football [Jeff Vetere] wasn’t brought in by me either.
For the record, while Redknapp was in charge, Birmingham signed 14 players before the start of the 2017/18 campaign, with the cumulative wage increase adding to the financial strains already prevalent at St. Andrew’s. The Club Killer strikes again.
Indeed, Brum were placed under transfer embargo last summer after making a £39million loss over the course of three years,
The points deduction will take effect immediately, dropping Gary Monk’s side down from 13th to 18th place in the Championship, leaving them five points above the relegation zone with eight games left to play.
However, the one vaguely positive nugget of news is that the club will have their embargo lifted, allowing them to start trading players again come the opening of the summer transfer window.