READING FC boss Paul Ince expects the club to receive a six point deduction from the EFL next week.
The Royals are set to be hit with a six point deduction for the second consecutive season.
Reading lost six points last campaign for breaking EFL profit and sustainability rules in previous seasons with a suspended six point deduction hanging over them for this campaign, which looks likely to be triggered.
“What’s happened is not an issue that me or Mark Bowen have created. It’s a historical issue that we know nothing about,” said Ince.
“This year we wanted to start moving forward in the right direction bringing in Mark Bowen as director of football and Brian Carey, things we didn’t have at this club and the infrastructure is moving forward in the right direction.
“That’s very important to the future of the football club.
“We’ve complied with the EFL and the rules, we haven’t overspent, we can’t overspend that’s the sad thing about it because we’ve complied with the EFL.”
The club has been placed under a transfer embargo for the last two years which has limited them to signing free agents and loan players, with all deals being signed off by the EFL.
However, it appears that the EFL are ready to give Reading another six point deduction for ‘historical misdemeanours’.
Ince continued: “We had a conversation with the players this morning. We don’t know when it (the points deduction) is coming. It could be this week. It could be the week after.
“As it stands we don’t know so we have to conduct ourselves as if it will be the case and when it does come, we deal with it.
“It’s not a great situation and the timing of it is not great. If we’re losing six points I’d rather it happen at the start of the season because then at least we know where we are.
“The timing is really, really poor. We can’t cry about it. If it comes, it comes. We have to all galvanise each other to stay in this league and it’s something we’re more capable of doing.
“It’s not a nice situation but we’ve done it before.
“What the EFL decide to do is out of my control. I can’t control what happened two years ago, I wasn’t here. What I can control is how we fix it because we have to pick up the baton.
“We have 13 games to go, let’s pick up the baton, all of us and make sure we are in the Championship next year.
“We’ve done everything by the book, me and Mark Bowen. This is a situation that happened prior to when we got here.”
