Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Forest fury over points deduction
NOTTINGHAM Forest are “extremely disappointed” to have been docked four points for breaching Premier League financial rules.
The deduction drops Forest into the Premier League’s relegation zone, leaving them 18th with nine games to play.
The PA news agency understands Forest will now take time to consider their next steps, including the potential to appeal.
The Premier League said Forest admitted breaching profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) by £34.5 million above their permitted threshold of £61m.
Clubs are usually allowed maximum losses of £105m over a three-year assessment period but this is reduced by £22m per season for any seasons within the period spent in the Championship.
Forest are unhappy about the Premier League’s submission to the independent commission, which imposed the sanction, and claim trust in the governing body has now been eroded after it initially pushed for an eight-point deduction.
A club statement read: “Nottingham Forest is extremely disappointed with the decision of the commission to impose a sanction on the club of four points, to be applied with immediate effect. We were extremely dismayed by the tone and content of the Premier League’s submissions before the commission.
“After months of engagement with the Premier League, and exceptional cooperation throughout, this was unexpected and has harmed the trust and confidence we had in the Premier League.
“That the Premier League sought a sanction of eight points as a starting point was utterly disproportionate when compared to the nine points that their own rules prescribe for insolvency.”
The commission which imposed the sanction noted Forest’s breach was “serious” and stated in its conclusion: “The four points sanction is not to punish Forest so much as it is to be fair to the other clubs; to give the public confidence that when a club invests as Forest did to compete in the Premier League, it still needs to comply with the PSR threshold for losses.”
The commission ruling 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.”
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.