Nottingham Points Deduction: Forest slip into relegation zone for breaching PSR rules

Premier League giants Nottingham Forest have been docked four points after the club were found to have breached the Profit and Sustainability (PSR) rules. The point’s deduction was confirmed by the Premier League on Monday (Mar 18) which has huge ramifications on the standings in the league. The result leaves the relegation battle wide open as Luton Town are out of the drop zone and instead, Forest getting inserted in it.

Nottingham Points deduction

A club statement read: “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.”

The point deduction was looming on the club with a hearing taking place in the first week of March. It is no surprise that Forest were docked points after Everton were charged for similar offenses earlier in the season. The time of implementing the points deduction comes as a huge blow for Forest who were just outside the relegation zone, however, they now slip into the bottom three with nine matches of the season to go.

The point deduction also comes as a huge boost for Burnley and Sheffield United, with the latter being 10 points off the safety zone on Saturday morning. However, Burnley are now within five points of safety while Sheffield United are eight points away from achieving an unlikely survival in the top flight of English football.

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As things stand, Luton (21 points) remain outside the relegation zone while Sheffield United (14 points), Burnley (17 points) and Nottingham Forest (21 points) occupy the bottom three.

What is the Profit and Sustainability (PSR) rule?

Financial sustainability rules are designed to limit clubs to spend within the means of what they generate in revenue. Premier League clubs can lose £105m over three seasons – £35m per campaign – but Forest’s maximum loss was only permitted to be £61m because they spent two years of the assessment period in the Championship.

It will be an interesting final few games of the season for Forest where they play to avoid the drop from the top flight. They play fellow relegation strugglers Sheffield United and Burnley in the final three matches of the season, both being away. On the flip side, they also have Tottenham (away), Manchester City (home) and Chelsea (home) to play in the rest of the campaign, making it a hard bid to survive in the Premier League.

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