Forest in drop zone after points deduction
Nottingham Forest were yesterday docked four points for breaching Premier League financial rules.
The sanction drops them into the Premier League relegation zone, down in 18th with nine games to play.
The Premier League said Forest admitted breaching profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) by £34.5 million above their permitted threshold of £61m.
Clubs are allowed maximum losses of £105m over a three-year period but this is reduced by £22m per season for any seasons within the period spent in the Championship.
The commission which imposed the sanction on Forest praised the club for their “exceptional co-operation”, but added: “When a club like Forest took the risk of effectively ignoring the PSR warning from its finance director before the January window in 2023, and rather than looking to sell players, it added players to its squad, ultimately leaving itself with just two weeks to sell Player A (Brennan Johnson) in the summer 2023 window, such risk taking and ‘sailing close to the wind’ needs a proportionate sanction to maintain the integrity of the Premier League.”
Forest argued they had breached because they had to wait until after the cut off to get full value for Johnson, who then joined Tottenham Hotspur for £47.5m.
Everton were docked 10 points in November for breaching PSR in the period up to the 2021-22 season, which was reduced to six on appeal. A second complaint against the Toffees over a breach in the period up to last season is still being dealt with.
The ruling shows the Premier League pushed for a six-point sanction – with eight points as an initial figure to account for Forest’s excess over the threshold being 77 per cent greater than Everton’s, but discounted by two points to reflect Forest’s early plea and co-operation.
Forest, the two-time European champions, had been absent from the English top-flight for the previous 23 years. But the decision to sign a remarkable 29 players last season, with a reported spend of more than £150m, has led them here.