Nottingham Forest might be forgiven for feeling extremely annoyed with the Premier League after their Monday announcement on Chelsea.
Forest were deducted four points during the 2023/24 campaign for breaching PSR, with Everton deducted 10 during the same season.
It’s frowned upon to hold an opinion that lesser clubs don’t have the same clout when it comes to big decisions being made by the Premier League, but news coming out of Chelsea today suggests that such a notion is nonsense.
Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis
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Chelsea discover Premier League punishment
It’s been announced by Sky Sports today that Chelsea have been fined £10.75 million by the Premier League and handed a one-year transfer ban – albeit suspended for two years.
Furthermore, their academy has been given a nine-month transfer ban, which, considering the number of players Chelsea already have within their academy, is nothing short of a joke.
The absolute joke from this whole story is the concept that Chelsea seem to have been given a lesser punishment because they agreed to co-operation and no sporting sanction has been placed on them.
In the Forest PSR case, it was claimed by the Premier League: “The 50% discount suggested by Forest is too high: it gives too much credit for admission and cooperation and would be both disproportionate to the conduct being rewarded.”
However, Chelsea have now been allowed a lesser sanction for merely complying with everything, much like Forest did, which seemingly makes very little sense.
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Chelsea getting this level of punishment is pretty laughable given that £10 million to a club of that size is merely a drop in the ocean and what’s to really stop them making light of the rules again in the future.
Richard Masters famously referred to Forest and Everton as smaller clubs in the Premier League and when decisions like this are made it’s hard to stomach.
Chelsea won’t even notice the £10 million leave their bank account and the fact their transfer ban is suspended for two years just means they can enter the market again and spend hundreds of millions on more players in the summer.
Forest – and Everton for that matter – have every right to feel aggrieved and the sooner an independent regulator comes into football, the better and fairer it will be for every club at the top table.
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