Nottingham Forest ‘likely’ to breach financial rules – new ‘points deduction’ bomb
Nottingham Forest are likely to breach Uefa’s financial rules as they gear up for their Europa League campaign.
Forest finished seventh in the Premier League last season, but they have been promoted from the Conference League to the Europa League following Crystal Palace’s demotion.
Uefa confirmed last month Chelsea have been fined £26.7million and could be fined a further £51.2million if they don’t comply with the governing body’s rules in the next four years.
Meanwhile, Villa have been fined £9.5million, with the potential of a further £12.9million penalty if they fail to comply in a three-year period.
The punishments relate to a breach of Uefa’s football earnings regulations and its squad cost ratio, where clubs in European competitions were required to keep spending on player wages and fees to 80 per cent of revenue in 2024.
However, the control ratio dropped to 70 per cent in 2024-25 and will remain at that level moving forward, with Forest’s turnover standing at £190million in their latest accounts for 2023-24, while their wage bill was £166million.
Nottingham Forest at risk of increased points deduction
Forest have previously faced profit and sustainability (PSR) issues after landing a four-point deduction in 2024 for breaching the spending rules.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have signed Omari Hutchinson, Dan Ndoye, Arnaud Kalimuendo, James McAtee, Igor Jesus, Jair Cunha and Angus Gunn for around £150million this summer, with Douglas Luiz also joining on loan.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson said: “They’re going to have an issue come what may with Uefa financial fair play.
“I would say that when the calculation is done for the season that’s just gone, next year they will fail the football earnings and they will probably fail squad cost control as well.
“So, I think there will probably be a similar sort of settlement period this time next year to the one that Aston Villa are currently in. But I think they’re probably fairly relaxed about it.
“They’ll pay the €5million (£4.3million) fine, agree to the three-year settlement period and they’ll figure it out beyond there.
“Look, they can’t keep spending forever because unless they want another points deduction, they’d probably get a harsher penalty because it would be a second offence.
“So, they can’t even just say, well, we just fail and we’ll take a two, three or four-point hit. They have to be pretty careful because they might find themselves being penalised quite heavily, so there’s a limit.
“They do know that they could very easily next summer sell Gibbs-White if they really needed to for a £50million profit there.”
Nottingham Forest could sack Nuno Espirito Santo after bust-up
Forest are considering sacking Nuno following his public bust-ups with owner Evangelos Marinakis and global head of football Edu Gaspar.
The relationship between Nuno and Edu is understood to be “potentially irreparable” at the City Ground.
Forest have claimed four points from their opening two games of the new Premier League season.
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