Nottingham Forest

Dilemma as Nottingham and Everton points deductions impact and relegation battle

Published

8 months ago

April 12, 2024

The chief executive of one of Nottingham Forest’s relegation rivals has criticised the points deductions meted out to the Reds and Everton for breaching financial regulations.

Forest have been docked four points for falling foul of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules by £34.5million over their permitted threshold of £61m. The club have lodged an appeal against the sanction, with the outcome expected later this month.

The Toffees were hit with a 10-point deduction in November, which was reduced to six on appeal. A second PSR charge then saw them docked two points earlier this week, with the club having said they will challenge the sanction

Reflecting on Everton’s latest punishment, Luton Town CEO Gary Sweet told BBC Radio Three Counties: “It’s quite astonishing really. One of the things that disappoints me is that the independent commission who value the level of the penalty clearly haven’t looked into it too deeply.

“If you look at what clubs do, what we do, we spend hundreds of thousands of pounds in data analytics in order to recruit the right players who are going to give us the goals, give us the points and defend the goals. So we know the value of a goal and we know the value of a point in monetary terms.

“If we do, then it is not beyond the wit of man with such important decisions like this for an independent party to come up with that kind of data analysis to be able to value an overspend amount conversion to points – and it is never two. It is never two. It is much higher than two.

“From that perspective, really disappointed that it is that little. The punishment simply doesn’t fit the crime, and ultimately what that means is it doesn’t become a deterrent. If you have the money, you might as well spend it.

“One example is, if you look at the Forest four (points) – which I was also disappointed with – getting two points off for cooperating is ridiculous. You should have had two points added if you didn’t cooperate – it should have been six.”

Forest are level on points with Luton but sit above them in the table on goal difference. They drew 1-1 with the Hatters at Kenilworth Road prior to the last international break.

“Let’s look at it another way, if you look at the Forest situation there is a clear identifier there,” Sweet added. “Chris Wood, who cost them roughly £15m and probably another £5m in terms of salary, so a £20m part of their overspend – about half of their overspend.

“In the two games we have had against them, (he) has scored all three goals and has taken four points from us and given them two. That is a six-point turnaround just in those two games, forget what else he has done – and he scored on Sunday (against Tottenham Hotspur) as well. Just what else he has done in the season, he effectively constitutes what kind of level of points deduction they should have been given – and that’s only half of their overspend. It should be an awful lot more than four points, in my view.”

He added: “This is Everton’s second time, albeit a smaller level – it should certainly be a greater amount. It is not for me to say how many that should be. But as a club that has gone through a 30-point deduction (in the 2008-09 season) for what I can see as something that was relatively less, then it is somewhere between the two. It has to be a punishment level that actually is a real deterrent.”