Tottenham Hotspur £47.5m transfer has huge knock-on for rivals

Tottenham Hotspur were involved in a failed defence mounted by Premier League rivals Nottingham Forest to argue against a four-point deduction for breaches of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules.

Forest have today seen the points deduction applied with immediate effect and drop into the relegation zone as a result. The change in the top flight table sees Luton Town clamber out of the bottom three and into 17th place.

The points punishment could have huge consequences for the Premier League fight for survival but shouldn't affect the competition further up the league and Spurs' chase for European football. However, the North London outfit has been mentioned in reports this afternoon related to the Nottingham Forest punishment.

That is because the Nottinghamshire outfit hinged their argument against the points deduction on the sale of striker Brennan Johnson to Tottenham Hotspur last summer. The 22-year-old completed the move for £47.5 million but that was well after the PSR deadline in June.

Premier League clubs can lose over £105 million across three seasons, which is equivalent to £35 million per campaign. However, for two of the years included in the assessment period, Nottingham Forest played in the Championship and were only permitted losses of £61 million.

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The club appointed leading sports lawyer Nick de Marco to argue against a punishment and explained that the sale of Johnson past the June deadline allowed Nottingham Forest to charge a higher fee for the player, having been offered £30 million by Brentford earlier in the summer. Clubs are known to have to pay more to complete deals with the transfer deadline looming large.

With Johnson coming from the Forest academy, it was argued that such an approach was the most sustainable way forward.

A Premier League statement read: "An independent Commission has applied an immediate four-point deduction to Nottingham Forest FC for a breach of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSRs) for the period ending Season 2022/23.

"Nottingham Forest was referred to an independent Commission on 15 January, following an admission by the club that it had breached the relevant PSR threshold of £61 million by £34.5 million. The threshold was lower than £105 million as the club spent two seasons of the assessment period in the EFL Championship. The case was heard in accordance with new Premier League Rules, which provide an expedited timetable for PSR cases to be resolved in the same season the complaint is issued.

"The independent Commission determined the sanction following a two-day hearing this month, at which the club had the opportunity to detail a range of mitigating factors. The Commission found that the club had demonstrated “exceptional cooperation” in its dealings with the Premier League throughout the process."