Nottingham Forest Unsuccessful in Appeal Following Social Media Reaction to Stuart Attwell
Ever since their promotion back to the Premier League, few clubs have spent as much money as Nottingham Forest with their transfer fees alone crossing the £300 million mark. It saw the club breach the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR). That came at a cost with Forest deducted four points from their current season while Everton were deducted six.
However, Forest, like Everton, appealed their decision and while the Toffees managed to reduce their deduction from 10 points to 6 points, after Forest appealed the decision. PSR saga has kept fans and critics alike in tension over the club’s future, especially with them in a relegation battle.
Forest have been superb this season, currently standing on the third position in the EPL points table, and should be securing the UEFA Champions League football in the 2025/26 season.
Nottingham Forest Unsuccessful in Their Appeal
However, following their win over Sheffield United, reports had indicated that Forest had heard back from the appeals board and that their appeal was reportedly unsuccessful. The Premier League has now confirmed that via an official statement. Additionally, the Athletic have reported that the league handed the club a lower sentence, as it should have been a six point deduction.
But Forest’s early plea and co-operation factored in, which the appeals board took into consideration when they ruled to uphold the original penalty. The statement read that the PSR sanction applied to the 2022/23 season and that the club argued that the commission committed the error while the appeals board found nothing wrong.
“An independent Appeal Board has upheld the decision of a Commission to deduct four points from Nottingham Forest following an admitted breach of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR),” reads the report on the Premier League’s website.
“The PSR sanction applied to the assessment period ending Season 2022/23 and was appealed by the club on two grounds. The club argued that the independent Commission committed an error in not treating its sale of a high-profile player shortly after the assessment period as a mitigating factor, and that it committed a further error in electing not to suspend some or all of the points deduction it imposed.”
“Each of these grounds was rejected by the Appeal Board, which found the independent Commission was entitled to immediately impose the sanction it did. The four-point deduction will therefore remain in place.”
FA Fines Forest For Social Media Post Against Stuart Attwell
The Football Association (FA) has upheld the £750,000 monetary fine on Nottingham Forest due to their cryptic social media post against Premier League match official Stuart Attwell, after their 2-0 defeat against Everton in 2024. The Tricky Trees questioned the integrity of the match official, Stuart Attwell, over his on-field decisions.
The FA slapped a fine of over £1 million due to their misconduct, the association labeled the post “ill-chosen and irresponsible” and emphasised “ill-chosen and irresponsible” after the order to remove the post. Forest have lost their appeal to overturn the decision.
The club social media post stated, “Three extremely poor decisions — three penalties not given — which we simply cannot accept. We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game, but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times. NFFC will now consider its options.”