Championship side Derby County have been deducted a further nine points after admitting breaches of English Football League accounting rules.
The club were previously docked 12 points for going into administration and have agreed to the dismissal of their appeal against that decision.
The latest penalty leaves Wayne Rooney's side on -3 points - 18 points from safety at the foot of the table.
And it means they are almost certain to be relegated to League One.
Derby have also been given a further suspended three-point deduction for their breaches of the league's profitability and sustainability rules.
The Rams were placed into administration on 22 September and efforts to find a buyer are continuing.
However, the issues related to their accounting practices pre-date that and they were fined £100,000 in July and ordered to resubmit their accounts for 2016, 2017 and 2018.
The club were cleared of breaching spending rules in August 2020.
However, the EFL appealed against the decision to an independent tribunal and won the element of the case concerning how the club measured the value of players - called amortisation.
Amortisation rules should see the cost of any transfer fee accounted for evenly over the length of that player's contract - so a £5m fee over a five-year deal would be charged as £1m per year, and worth zero come the end of the contract period.
However, Derby gave players a 'residual value' - meaning the club could increase the value of players during the life of the contract - a practice which it was claimed was not in line with generally accepted accounting principles.
It is understood virtually all credible parties currently interested in buying the club are doing so on the basis Derby will be in League One next season.
Derby have only spent four seasons outside the top two divisions of English football in their entire history, the last occasion was in 1985-86, when they were promoted under Arthur Cox.
More to follow.
