Nottingham Forest docked four points for breaching Premier League profit and sustainability rules in crushing blow to survival hopes

The Reds admitted to the charges brought against them, but the expectation is that they will appeal against a ruling that has seen them slip down the table and into the bottom three – a point adrift of safety with nine games left to play.

Forest hired a top sports lawyer to argue their case, with the sale of Brennan Johnson to Tottenham in the summer of 2023 forming part of that discussion. It is argued that a £47.5 million ($60m) deal there, which was completed after the June 30 deadline set by Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), made the Reds more sustainable as they generated a higher transfer fee than that originally offered by Brentford.

Those claims have fallen on deaf ears, with the Premier League imposing a points penalty. Clubs are allowed to lose £105m ($134m) over a three-year period, but Forest were limited to £61m ($78m) in their accounts due to spending two years of that window in the Championship.

They had to spend big after securing promotion and returning to the Premier League for the first time in 23 years, with 42 players signed since then. They are being made to pay for that show of ambition, with Everton having also been stung with a points deduction this season as they wait to discover what a second round of charges against them will bring.