Everton and Nottingham Forest fear being hit with Premier League spending charge
Nottingham Forest and Everton are braced to finally learn their fate on new Premier League charges amid mounting fears both could be in breach of financial regulations.
With Everton already fighting to overturn a separate 10-point deduction, both clubs believe they have strong cases to fight the prospect of any fresh penalties this season.
Sources close to Forest and Everton insist the clubs had been given no indication on potential charges on Sunday night, with Everton manager Sean Dyche insisting he was still in the dark.
But both clubs have equipped themselves for the prospect, preparing mitigation that they believe should dismiss charges if they are referred to an independent commission later today.
Both clubs maintain they are within limits but, in Everton’s case, it would be stadium costs rather than player trading that would be the root cause of any potential overspend, as it had been the period in which the club has already been punished.
The club’s net spend on players among teams has been among the lowest in the Premier League for consecutive years.
As previously reported by Telegraph Sport, Forest, have enlisted leading sports lawyer Nick De Marco as they attempt to avoid becoming the third top-flight club charged.
Speaking after a 0-0 draw with Aston Villa on Sunday, Dyche insisted Everton has been given no indication, as yet, if they are facing more charges.
Asked what the club’s hierarchy have said about the situation, Dyche said: “Nothing at the moment. Just waiting on the news because the last time the news came out of the blue so it might do tomorrow. I’ll explain further if and when the news comes through.”
Sources close to Everton also maintain privately that they believe the Merseyside club are within this year’s limits. The club is also still waiting to find out whether its proposed takeover by 777 Partners is to get the green light.
Only the “most exceptional cases”, including the 115 charges facing Manchester City, are exempt from new Premier League rules that any club charged with a standard financial rule breach must be completed within 12 weeks.
For Everton, Forest and other clubs, that meant accounts for the 2022-23 season had to be submitted before December 31, instead of March. At Goodison Park, the departure of £250,000-a-week James Rodriguez had been a major relief for the wage bill as he left the club in the autumn of 2021. Over the ensuing year, Richarlison was sold to Tottenham for around £50 million, while Anthony Gordon fetched more than £40 million from Newcastle in deals that compare favourably with some of the prior wild trading during the Moshiri era.
However, Amadou Onana, Dwight McNeil and Neal Maupay arrived for multi-million pound fees, and there were other unforeseen factors in the last campaign that will have been a headache.
Everton’s original deduction centred on interest payable on loans to build their new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. The club calculated £18 million headroom within spending limits, but the Premier League argued they had overspent by £7.9 million.
To offset costs amid a global spending squeeze since, sanctions brought against then sponsor Alisher Usmanov in March 2022 may have proven costly last season. That said, Everton did secure their biggest sponsorship deal to date in June 2022. To offset some of those losses, Everton secured a “club record main partner agreement” with Stake.com, the online casino, in June 2022.
Forest, having signed 43 players since winning the Championship play-off final in May 2022, were widely expected to have been sailing close to the wind, though sources insist they are also confident of avoiding sanctions.
De Marco, a KC with Blackstone Chambers, has been appointed to argue their case and has established an impressive record dealing with football, and especially Financial Fair Play. Forest reported an annual loss of £45.6 million in their last accounts. In the previous year, ending June 2021, they recorded a loss of £34.4 million, reduced to a loss before tax of £15.5 million.
Evangelos Marinakis, the owner, has invested more than £250 million on transfer fees in a bid to make Forest an emerging force in English football. Their wage bill will also be significant.
Last month the Greek billionaire made a further financial commitment to the club with the conversion of £11 million worth of loans into shares for the financial year 2022-23.
Forest submitted their accounts ending June 30, 2023, two weeks ago, with the crux of their argument understood to centre around the sale of Brennan Johnson to Tottenham. Johnson was sold for £47.5 million on deadline day – a record sale for the club – and Forest will insist that they would have received a far lower fee if they had accepted an offer earlier in the summer.
Everton were handed the biggest punishment in Premier League history by an independent commission in December. They have appealed against the decision to dock them 10 points, which will be heard and concluded before the end of the season.
Manchester City were charged in February with 115 alleged breaches and that case remains ongoing.
