It's all Stoke City's fault!
Birmingham City were docked nine points last week after failing to meet the financial fair play rules.
But they would have met them if it wasn't for Stoke, according to The Mirror.
If only Stoke had done the decent thing and sold Jack Butland for a huge profit last summer, Birmingham would have pocketed the proceeds from a healthy sell-on clause.
Butland was bought by Stoke from Birmingham in 2013, of course, and The Mirror says reports last summer claimed at one point that the England goalkeeper could join Liverpool or Chelsea for something like £50m.
Crucially, says The Mirror, "that calculation was included in the workings they (Birmingham) submitted to the Football League."
Sadly for Butland, and even more sadly for Birmingham, Liverpool chose instead to sign Allison and Chelsea went for Kepa in deals totalling nearly £140m.
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The Mirror continues: "That scuppered any chance of Birmingham using the money to break even on debts that breached their profit and sustainability limits by £10m.
"The Blues were due 20 per cent of the profit on any fee from a player they sold to their north Staffordshire rivals for just £3.25m when they were struggling to survive the carnage wrought by then owner Carson Yeung who was eventually convicted of money-laundering.
"Had Butland made either of those big-money moves, then the cash would have enabled Brum to break-even and escape the mess for which they were punished this week."
Birmingham may get their money this summer when Butland is expected to move, but too late to spare them their nine-point penalty.
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