Football news - Birmingham City deducted nine points by EFL over financial rule breaches

The Midlands club feared they could have been given a 12-point deduction, but a disciplinary commission panel concluded on Friday that nine points and a further transfer embargo for the summer window would represent the correct sanction after the club broke the English Football League’s spending rules.

Garry Monk’s side are currently on 50 points in the Championship, 14 points clear of the relegation zone, but the points deduction drags the side into a scrap for survival.

The punishment sees the Blues drop from 13th to 18th in the English second tier, five points above the relegation zone with eight matches to play.

Leeds United were docked 15 points in 2007, but this would represent the biggest points deduction since then.

Birmingham face promotion contenders West Brom, Leeds and Sheffield United in their next three games, before they play relegation rivals Ipswich, Rotherham and Wigan. Their final game is against Reading at the Madejski Stadium on May 5.

The club's accounts showed a loss of £37.5million in the 12 months to the end of June 2018, resulting from an increase in wages from £22m to £38m during the managerial reigns of Gianfranco Zola and Harry Redknapp.

Birmingham signed Danish full-back Kristian Pedersen from Union Berlin for £2m in June 2018 after receiving a transfer embargo last summer for exceeding losses of £39m, the permitted amount over a three-year period.