Watford have been fined almost £4 million after admitting supplying falsified financial information to the football authorities.

The Premier League club have been punished for submitting a forged banking letter – the existence of which was exclusively revealed by Telegraph Sport in October – when Gino Pozzo became their sole owner.

The faked filing, provided as proof Pozzo had enough funds to bankroll Watford, allowed the Italian to take full control of the Hertfordshire club.

Fabricated to appear as though it was written by HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, the letter was submitted to the Football League (now EFL) shortly before the club’s 2014-15 promotion-winning campaign.

A copy of the document was obtained by the Telegraph, which it passed on both to HSBC and the police after alerting the EFL, sparking an internal investigation by Watford and a 10-month inquiry by the governing body.