West Brom PSR timing is simply awful - surely the EFL could have avoided this

Having been set to benefit from Leicester’s six point deduction - Albion looked to be well on their way to survival.

There is work to be done - but with four games to go many are tipping James Morrison’s side to complete a recovery.

But, a dark cloud gathered over The Hawthorns on Monday - as reports emerged over a potential financial breach that could end in a points deduction.

The information available currently is sparse. The EFL have been tight lipped. Albion insist they have complied.

So now, it is literally a waiting game, we won’t know when anything will be handed down or decided.

And this comes less than three weeks before the end of the season. How on earth has this been allowed to happen?

The issue of what the sanction will be, whether they deserve one, or whether they will go unpunished is a different point entirely.

It may well be Albion have breached the rules and they deserve a sanction. If they have and that happens, it might be the case of the club holding their hands up.

But the bigger point to this is surrounding the timing. Albion had to submit this report to the EFL on the financial issue by the end of December.

The club has said it has fully complied with rules.

So why are we sat here, four and a half months on from that, just finding out about this now through a national newspaper report?

How fair is that on Albion, how fair is that on the other sides battling for survival, and how fair is it on these players?

The answer is that it is not. There may be an explanation as to why it has taken so long, but from the outside, and purely an opinion of mine is that someone has possibly taken their eye off the ball from the EFL.

Because a protracted and drawn out process on this, where the decision goes past the end of the season, calls the integrity of the EFL into question.

It makes a farce of one of the biggest leagues in the world. The Championship is up there with some major leagues. The fate of sides fighting for survival shouldn’t be ending like this.

The fact Leicester have only just discovered the outcome of their appeal is a little bit of a joke. Five games to go and they’ve only just found out they are going to have to suck up a six point deduction.

This simply cannot drag on. If there is a sanction, Albion will have to deal with it any way they see fit. But it can’t rumble on.