Nottingham Forest has faced a four-point reduction for not following the Premier League’s rules on making money and spending it wisely. This penalty has pushed them into a dangerous spot, just one point away from being safe from dropping out of the league.
The Premier League is set to make this official on Monday, and it looks like Forest will challenge this decision.
The club has owned up to not sticking to the rules. However, they argued there were special reasons for this, especially concerning the potential sale of Brennan Johnson. Last summer, Brentford made a £30m bid for Johnson, but he didn’t want to leave. Forest believed they could get more money for him if they waited past the June 30 deadline. Eventually, Johnson moved to Tottenham in September for £47.5m, but an independent group didn’t buy Forest’s explanation.
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Forest argued that the money they made from selling Johnson, who came from their youth academy, should be seen as a profit. This, they said, was part of their plan to be more financially stable.
Premier League teams can lose up to £105m over three years without getting in trouble. But, because Forest spent two of those years in the Championship, they were only allowed to lose £61m. They said this limit made things tough after moving up to the Premier League, as spending money on new players is crucial to compete with the more established teams.
Since moving up, Forest has brought in 42 players, spending around £250m to make sure they stayed in the Premier League last season.