Luton Town and Everton handed major boost because of Premier League rule ahead of Tottenham and Bournemouth

Brighton and Hove Albion’s Premier League rivals Nottingham Forest have been docked four points for breaching Premier League financial rules.

The deduction drops Forest into the Premier League’s relegation zone, leaving them 18th with nine games to play.

The punishment arrived just days after Nuno Espirito Santo’s team suffered a 1-0 loss in the Premier League to Brighton at the Amex Stadium.

It’s a huge boost for the survival hopes of Luton Town, who now move out of the drop zone and play Tottenham after the international break. Everton are 16th and take on Bournemouth when the season resumes, while Brentford and Crystal Palace are just above in 15th and 14th respectively.

The Premier League said Forest admitted breaching profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) by £34.5million above their permitted threshold of £61million.

Clubs are usually allowed maximum losses of £105million over a three-year assessment period but this is reduced by £22million per season for any seasons within the period spent in the Championship.

The commission which imposed the sanction on Forest praised the club for their “exceptional co-operation” in their dealings with the Premier League on this issue.

The commission noted Forest’s breach was “serious” and stated: “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.”

The commission ruling added: “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.”

Forest have yet to issue a statement indicating whether or not they would appeal. Everton were docked 10 points in November for breaching PSR in the period up to the 2021-22 season, which was reduced to six on appeal.

A second complaint against the Toffees over a breach in the period up to last season is still being dealt with.