(Credit: Imago)

James Murray

Thu 7 May 2026 12:00, UK

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West Brom’s punishment appears to be “very unfair” after being handed a two-point deduction by the EFL. 

That is according to former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the Championship club’s breach may have been less than £1million.

West Brom were charged with an alleged breach of the EFL’s financial rules for exceeding the £39m loss limit over the three-year period leading up to the end of 2024-25.

The Baggies were then docked two points on 24 April, leaving them with work still to do to ensure their second-tier status.

However, Albion eventually ended the campaign in 21st place, four points above the relegation zone. 

How much did West Brom breach EFL rules by?

The EFL has been slammed for its handling of the situation, having left it until the final weeks of the season to charge West Brom.

James Morrison’s side have continued to stand by the belief they complied with the financial rules. 

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson discussed West Brom’s points deduction.

“We know that the miss is less than £2m,” said Borson. 

“It’s probably less than £1m actually when you look at the points deduction. I’m sure they can find a way to manage it through if it’s such a small miss because it would have been in the plan.

“To be honest now, it’s almost too late in this season to deal with it. The only thing that they can play around with really is going to be player sales in June, and those are going to be notoriously difficult.” 

Why EFL treated West Brom breach as ‘serious’ matter

Borson insisted the EFL’s reasoning behind the points deduction will become clearer after the written reasons are made available. 

“The decision itself has not yet been published, so we’ll know more when we get the full examination of what happened and why they were deducted two points,” said Borson.

“The EFL has sanction guidance that tells you, in the event of a breach, this is what you can expect before mitigating and aggravating factors. 

“It says that if you breach by less than £2m, you can expect a three-point deduction and they got two points, so you would think that what happened was that they had mitigation for part of it, and that brought it down from three to two. 

“The bottom line is that the miss of P&S in the EFL is the same from a seriousness perspective as a miss of PSR. It’s considered serious at any level, whether you breached by 1p or £10m, it’s serious. Therefore, it’s considered to be serious enough for a sporting sanction, and obviously they were in the lower tier.

“We’re better off waiting to understand where the EFL was coming from. On the face of it, it looks very unfair the way it’s been explained by West Brom. But I suspect when we get the full set of reasons that there’s at least some justification from the EFL.”