Everton, Nottingham Forest facing punishment for breaking English Premier League financial rules

Everton's Amadou Onana, front, duels for the ball with Aston Villa's Douglas Luiz during a English Premier League match. Photo / AP

Everton could be facing another costly punishment for breaking the Premier League’s financial rules.

The competition said today that both Everton and Nottingham Forest were being referred to an independent commission after breaching its profitability and sustainability regulations.

The league’s rules allow clubs to lose a maximum of 105 million pounds (NZ$215 million) over a three-year period or face sanctions.

The teams could be punished with a fine or a points deduction, applied this season as part of a fast-tracked process.

Everton has already received a record 10-point deduction for overspending in the three-year period up to the end of the 2021-22 season. The club has appealed against the severity of that punishment, which plunged the team from Merseyside back into relegation danger.

Everton, which has been a top-division club since 1954, is currently in fourth-to-last place in the standings, one point and one spot above the relegation zone. Forest is in 15th place, four points above the bottom three.

Forest’s charge comes after a 2022-23 season — its first back in the Premier League after a 23-year absence — when the club made an unprecedented 21 offseason signings at a cost of $NZ258 million. The club also spent heavily in the second-tier Championship in a bid to get promoted.

Manchester City is currently in a legal fight with the Premier League after the competition accused the English and European champions of about 80 alleged breaches of its financial rules from 2009-18 and 30 more relating to its alleged failure to co-operate with an investigation.

The outcome of City’s case isn’t expected to be known for many months because of the number of alleged breaches involved.