Liverpool ranked Premier League's most sustainable club

Liverpool are the most sustainably run Premier League club while crisis-hit Everton scored joint-highest for fan engagement, according to Fair Game's Sustainability Index.

Fair Game - an independent collective of clubs, think-tank leaders and academics - has analysed factors such as fan engagement, financial management and equality standards to rank clubs in England's top two divisions.

The analysis saw Liverpool lead the way in the top flight ahead of Everton and Southampton, with Norwich coming out on top in the Championship.

The Reds scored particularly highly on equality - measured by factors such as gender ratio at boardroom level and recruitment of women and ethnic minority candidates to leadership roles - and governance, which looked at issues like transparency and rates of pay for non-football staff.

Relegation-threatened Everton, whose fans have been protesting against the club's board in recent weeks, and Brentford scored highest for fan engagement.

Nottingham Forest finished bottom of the top-flight rankings, hampered in part by a financial rating of one out of 40, with the club spending 202% of their revenue on player wages over the period analysed. The recommended proportion of revenue going on wages is 70%.

Financial ratings were calculated according to figures obtained from clubs' annual accounts, measuring assets against liabilities, the amount owed in short-term loans, as well as the money spent on wages.

Premier League pacesetters Arsenal ranked fourth in the index despite recording the best result for financial sustainability.

Manchester United ranked sixth overall, despite having the Premier League's lowest score for equality standards.

Newcastle got the lowest result for engagement with their fans, calculated