It's not actually been demonstrated yet that they've broken the rules though so I don't think they could have punished them as far back as the playoffs. That said, they could start asking for clubs to provide, say, monthly abbreviated accounts to show the rough financial position ahead of time. But then they'd probably just fix them if it looked like they would run over the limit.
For me the big problems here are: (1) that the Premier League and Football League are separate, hence QPR wouldn't face any footballing sanctions until they were relegated, which might be this season or might be 30 years down the line and; (2) the notion of hitting clubs that make a huge loss with an equally massive fine. That's one way to send a struggling company right out of business when it might otherwise be salvageable. Obviously there are those with owners with deep pockets, and in those cases it's not so harmful, but as a general principle I don't think it's a clever punishment. Severe footballing sanctions would be just as painful but would give the club at least a chance to survive if it falls into financial strife. If there was more integration between the FL and PL a club like QPR in this situation could be docked points in the current season (and future seasons if necessary) or banned from promotion for x seasons.
For me the big problems here are: (1) that the Premier League and Football League are separate, hence QPR wouldn't face any footballing sanctions until they were relegated, which might be this season or might be 30 years down the line and; (2) the notion of hitting clubs that make a huge loss with an equally massive fine. That's one way to send a struggling company right out of business when it might otherwise be salvageable. Obviously there are those with owners with deep pockets, and in those cases it's not so harmful, but as a general principle I don't think it's a clever punishment. Severe footballing sanctions would be just as painful but would give the club at least a chance to survive if it falls into financial strife. If there was more integration between the FL and PL a club like QPR in this situation could be docked points in the current season (and future seasons if necessary) or banned from promotion for x seasons.