With West Brom having been charged with an alleged breach of the EFL's Profit and Sustainability (PSR) rules, Your Site News' football correspondent Rob Dorsett explains the current situation the Baggies find themselves in.
It is not clear when West Brom were first reported by the Club Financial Reporting Unit for a breach. They had to file their accounts three-and-a-half months ago, by December 31, like all the other 71 EFL clubs, but what has been happening since then?
I suspect negotiations and discussions have been going on about what they can include in their accounts for allowable expenditure outside of the PSR calculations i.e. the women's team, infrastructure etc.
It seems as though interest paid on loans is at the heart of the matter, when the club was run by previous owner Guochuan Lai.
What I've been told is, if West Brom have breached PSR, it is a marginal breach, not a flagrant breach. As such, if an independent commission decides they have breached the rules, there is likely to be a minimal points deduction, but still a points deduction.
It could be three points rather than the six Leicester were given because there are likely to be no aggravating factors or sizeable breaches, but it is not clear and we have no idea yet of when this independent commission will meet to decide West Brom's fate.
That is unless it is proven - as the club has stressed publicly - that they have not broken the rules.
Neither the EFL or the club has been able to comment with proceedings ongoing.
In short, yes.
It is very clear in the EFL guidelines that if a club is found to be in breach of PSR, any punishment - and it is almost always a points deduction - is handed down in the season following the breach.
That is an important principle that all the EFL clubs wanted, so that sporting integrity is maintained, and clubs who break the rules are punished at the earliest possible opportunity.
The accounting period in focus here is 2024/25, with those accounts submitted to the EFL at the end of December, so this season is when the guidelines say a punishment should be served and the EFL is committed to getting this finalised before the end of the season.
But when is "the end of the season"? Is it as the final whistle is blown at the end of the final round of matches? Is it the day before next season's fixtures are drawn?
It is possible, but very unlikely I am told, that the punishment will be decided after the final games of the Championship season, with all parties pushing hard for a resolution as soon as possible.
It is terrible for sporting integrity when you have a situation like this, where five clubs are hanging on the result of an independent commission, which will decide whether one of those five gets a points deduction or not, very late in the season.
The reality right now is that West Brom, Leicester, Oxford, Blackburn and Portsmouth are all battling each other to avoid the two remaining relegation spots, and none of them knows what West Brom's real, current points total is.
The table right now shows they have 46 points and are two outside the relegation places. But are those 46 points really 43 or less?
There is this incredibly difficult and worrying situation where one club, teetering on the brink of relegation, is facing a possible points deduction, with a host of other clubs also desperately waiting to know the outcome.
There is also the very real possibility that the three relegated clubs from the Championship could go down following points deductions - Sheffield Wednesday, Leicester and West Brom.
That's not a great look for anyone, but it's the system all the clubs knew about in advance, and voted in favour of in advance. The EFL is simply applying those rules.
The key to the disagreement between the EFL and WBA, I understand, is how the interest payments on loans taken out by the previous owner should be categorised.
Bilkul, the new owners, have paid around £5m in interest over the accounting period for a loan worth over £20m taken out by former owner Guochuan Lai, and they feel very strongly that these payments fall to the ownership and not the club.
As such, they feel those amounts should not be included in the club's PSR calculations.
However, it's clear the EFL feel differently, and that the interest is a fundamental part of what the club has spent and still owes, and so has to be included in the PSR calculations.
We should stress there has been no comment at all from WBA or the EFL on this matter, and our information has come from elsewhere.
Simply, with the loan interest, WBA are in breach of the PSR rules for 2024/25, without the interest payments included, they are compliant, I have been told.
Yes. It would be a very bad look if a points deduction were to come very late in the season, or even after the final round of games has been played.
That is possible, but I think it's very unlikely. The EFL are desperate to get this sorted as soon as possible, but they are in the hands of the independent commission.
Contrary to fans' opinions, it is not the EFL who hand down punishments; they just bring the charges, via their Club Financial Reporting Unit.
And remember, this is the system the clubs voted for. They wanted any PSR breach to be punished in the immediate season following that breach and that makes timescales very tight for what is a very, very complicated process.
However, if a club goes into administration, an immediate 12-point deduction is imposed unless they go into administration after the fourth Thursday in March, which is designed to maintain the sporting integrity in a division. There is no such cut off when it comes to PSR breaches.
West Brom remain adamant that they have not breached the rules, saying in a statement on Monday that: "The club considers that it has fully complied with the P&S rules. The club will continue to co-operate with the EFL's Club Financial Reporting Unit and looks forward to resolving this matter."
