QPR will discover later this month if they have to pay the Football League a £57.9million fine for breaching Financial Fair Play regulations.

Rangers began legal proceedings to fight any potential punishment two years ago, when they were relegated from the Premier League. Now their case is going before an arbitration panel.

The furore stems over the size of QPR’s losses during the 2013-14 season in the Championship, when they were promoted to the top flight. Two years earlier, the FL had brought in new FFP regulations to ‘reduce the levels of losses being incurred at some clubs and, over time, establish a league of financially self-sustaining professional football clubs’.

It meant only a maximum loss of £8m for that season was allowed. QPR’s figures for that campaign showed a £9.8m loss, while an additional £60m was written off as loans by the club’s owners.

The FL argued such a move was not allowed and the possibility of being handed the £57.9m fine has been hanging over QPR ever since. QPR are not prepared to pay such a sum and now their case is going to be heard.

The club can ill afford to lose. The European Football Landscape Report released in January showed QPR are £239m in debt. They ended the campaign two points above the Championship drop zone and will receive the final year of parachute payments, following relegation in 2015, next season.

