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Nottingham Forest have had their appeal against a four-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) rejected.
This leaves Forest 17th in the top flight, three points above the relegation zone with two games left to play.
As a result, one win will likely be enough to secure their Premier League survival for a second consecutive season.
But Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have won just two of their past 12 games and still have to face a much-improved Chelsea and fellow relegation strugglers Burnley.
In their initial hearing, Forest were found to be £34.5m over the £61m PSR limit, more than one and a half times the acceptable total.
And their decision to appeal against the four-point penalty they received for that breach has been unsuccessful, as reported by the Athletic.
Forest are the second team to face points deductions for breaching PSR this season – Everton have also been deducted eight points across two separate cases.
In a statement released after their initial points deduction, Forest said: “The high levels of cooperation the Club has shown during this process, and which are confirmed and recorded in the Commission’s decision, were not reciprocated by the Premier League.
“After months of engagement with the Premier League, and exceptional cooperation throughout, this was unexpected and has harmed the trust and confidence we had in the Premier League.
“We were extremely dismayed by the tone and content of the Premier League’s submissions before the Commission.”
Forest still face potential punishment from the FA and the Premier League regarding the controversial statement they released after their recent 2-0 defeat to Everton.
Forest accused VAR Stuart Attwell of being a Luton fan and have been formally charged by the FA with misconduct.
The club have until Thursday 9 May to respond.
Any potential penalty for this charge will highly likely be financial rather than a points deduction, but is part of a wider tension between Forest and the English footballing authorities.
Meanwhile Everton’s appeal against their second FFP points deduction of this season, the two-point penalty for exceeding PSR between 2019-2023, is expected to be concluded before the end of the season.
The Premier League’s official backstop date is 24 May, the Friday after the final fixtures of the 2023-24 season, but the league have pledged to resolve this before 19 May.
