It means Paul Ince's side are now just a point above the Championship relegation zone, with the club dropping from 18th to 20th on 40 points.

The sanction relates to the club's failure to meet the terms of a business plan agreed following a breach of the profit and sustainability limits in 2021. The initial breach carried a six-point penalty with a further six points suspended until the current campaign, and that has now been enforced.

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The Royals have also been under a transfer embargo since the summer of 2021 as a result of the breach.

An EFL statement read: "Reading Football Club will be deducted six points from the 2022/23 Championship table, after the club admitted that it has failed to comply with the budget restrictions imposed, following a previous breach of the EFL's profitability and sustainability rules (P&S).

"The points deduction is an activation of a suspended six-point penalty, which was set out in the terms of an agreed decision between Reading and the EFL in November 2021.

"The EFL has been notified and will apply the sanction with immediate effect."

A Reading statement said: "Despite radical changes implemented at first team level and right across the structure of the business to its very core - and a rigid adherence to a strict league-monitored wage structure and transfer
embargo, the club accepts that it has not sufficiently satisfied certain elements of the planned budget and that, as a result, the independent club financial review panel has been unable to ratify that the club has met its forecast for compliance.

"We have worked closely with the EFL and the independent club financial review unit throughout the process in our aims to achieve the targets set out in the agreed business plan and every reasonable effort has been made to construct a competitive squad of players whilst avoiding further punishment.

"However, despite the substantial progress we have undeniably made and the lessons that have indeed been learned, as promised, we accept that the situation was never going to be easily or quickly fixed."

Turning attention to on-field matters and calling on supporters to back the team's now precarious position in the fight for survival, the club added: "We find ourselves with another huge fight on our hands.

"We will need our fans' support once more. We know you, our loyal supporters, will rise to the challenge again and give this group of players the impetus they need to scrap and battle until the final whistle at Huddersfield on Monday, May 8."

Reading's next game is on Friday when they host Birmingham, before a trip to Preston on Monday, live on Sky Sports.