Nottingham Forest still in relegation dogfight as appeal against four-point deduction fails

Nottingham Forest's challenge against a four-point penalty for breaching Premier League financial rules has been rejected, with the club’s lawyers criticised by an appeal board for their "microscopic forensic examination" of the wording in the original decision.

An independent commission docked Forest four points in March for exceeding permitted losses under top-flight profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) for the period up to the end of the 2022-23 season by £34.5m.

Forest appealed against that sanction, arguing that the commission made a mistake in not treating the sale of Brennan Johnson to Tottenham on transfer deadline day last summer as mitigation.

The club also argued a further mistake was made by the commission in failing to wholly or partially suspend the sanction.

However, an appeal board announced on Tuesday that the original commission was "entitled and right" to reach the decision it did, and took aim at the approach taken to the appeal by Forest.

"Some of the criticisms of the (original) decision have involved a minute examination of the words used by the commission," the appeal board said.

"Decisions such as these should not be subjected to microscopic forensic examination and interpreted as if they were statutes which have been drafted by Parliamentary Counsel.

"Allegations of infelicities of language or errors which are not material to the ultimate decision add to the complexity and costs of proceedings and are rarely likely to lead to a successful challenge of a decision."

The decision to uphold the original sanction leaves Forest on 29 points with two games left to play, three points above the relegation zone.

The appeal board added: "As the numbers of these (PSR) cases increases, there will be growing