Nottingham Forest discover outcome of Premier League points deduction appeal
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Nottingham Forest have failed in their appeal against the four-point deduction handed down by the Premier League.
Evangelos Marinakis' club were found to have broken the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules last season but immediately launched an appeal.
That was fast-tracked to ensure that clubs have clarity before the final run of games with the worst case scenario being an appeal decision made following the last set of fixtures.
And now they have learnt that they will not be given any points back, ensuring a tense end to the campaign. Forest remain in 17th place, three points clear of Luton with two games left to play.
In a statement, the Premier League confirmed: "The club argued that the independent Commission committed an error in not treating its sale of a high-profile player shortly after the assessment period as a mitigating factor, and that it committed a further error in electing not to suspend some or all of the points deduction it imposed.
"Each of these grounds was rejected by the Appeal Board, which found the independent Commission was entitled to immediately impose the sanction it did. The four-point deduction will therefore remain in place."
The East Midlands side learnt in mid-March that they were being docked four points for breaking the permitted limit of a £105m loss across a three-year cycle. An independent commission ruled that they had overspent by £34.5million.
Their deduction followed Everton ’s punishment for a breach of the same regulations. The Goodison Park club were initially stripped of 10 points but had four of those reinstated following an appeal.
While Everton were judged on a £105m limit across the past three years, the cap is calculated differently for promoted teams with losses of only £13m per campaign allowed in the Championship.
That meant Forest had a limit of £61m. After promotion in the summer of 2022 the club brought in 30 new signings, while their desire to wait to sell Brennan Johnson last summer meant his £47.5m fee to join Tottenham was not included in the financial year.
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Johnson's move was part of Forest's argument against the charges. They had rejected a bid of about £30m from Brentford last June, which would have been part of the financial accounts and seen them stay within the limits.
But their valuation of the Wales attacker was much higher and they finally received what they deemed an adequate bid later in the transfer window.
Forest said in an excoriating statement following the initial decision that “it still took steps to ensure Brennan Johnson was sold before the end of the transfer window” and “that was a clear demonstration of our respect and support for PSR.”
They could have been deducted six points only for the initial commission to say they had co-operated from the start of the investigation.
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