The Premier League once again bares its PSR fangs with a four-point punishment against Nottingham Forest.
Only twice in its first thirty-one years of existence had the Premier League given out points-penalties: to Middlesbrough for missing a match in 1996–1997 (three points), and to Portsmouth for entering administration in 2009–2010 (nine points).
The amount of points the League has docked from Everton and Nottingham Forest for breaking financial rules and regulations (profit and sustainability: PSR) has doubled in the last 31 weeks of the league’s existence. As a result, Forest is presently in the relegation zone.
Everton’s punishment was lowered to six points after an appeal, but they are currently the subject of an additional inquiry and may receive another reduction before the season is out. Although Forest is anticipated to file an appeal as well, it is unlikely that the penalty would be withdrawn. Thanks in part to Forest’s cooperation during the investigation, it appears that the four-point verdict already represents a generous decrease over the original eight-point penalty.
The League is also still looking into the cases of Chelsea and Manchester City; the latter is the same offense for which UEFA was pleased to settle for €10 million already, while the former is anticipated to take some time (despite the League’s wish to expedite this procedure generally).
To date, PSR appears to have a somewhat greater effect than FFP, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in such situations.
(And then we’ll start to worry about if Chelsea’s results from this year, where they reported a loss of over £90 million, actually comply with these regulations as we say they do, or if we’ll be the next team to lose points….)
