Premier League 2023/24: Premier League outfit Nottingham Forest have been deducted four points after the side were found guilty of Premier League's financial fair play breach. The decision was announced in an official statement released by the Premier League on Monday, March 18. Nottingham Forest were found guilty as per the Profitability and Sustainability rules of the Premier League, and with the penalty now being imposted on them, the two-time European champions have a massive task at their disposal to avoid relegation.
“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,” said Premier League Commission Ruling in a statement.
Nottingham Forest have signed 42 players since their promotion to Premier League in 2022, and with their unfair trades and financial breaches, the commission took the rigorous step and explained their ruling with this statement:
“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.”
With the latest point deduction coming in, Nottingham Forest now sit 18th with 21 points and are in a tight relegation battle with the likes of Luton Town and Burnley in the same number of matches, and if they fail in their appeal, then the deduction can prove to be fatal for their survival status in Premier League.