Nottingham Forest’s appeal against their four-point punishment for breaching profit and sustainability rules (PSR) will be heard on Wednesday, 24 April.
The hearing is expected to be wrapped up within a day, but no final decision will be made on Wednesday and Forest will have to wait to discover if they are successful, with the timeframe of the outcome unclear.
It will be heard by an independent commission with the decision having a huge impact on the relegation battle.
Forest are a point above the Premier League relegation zone and go to Everton, who are a point and a place above them, on Sunday with both clubs having been deducted points after PSR breaches.
Everton were hit with a 10-point deduction in November, reduced to six on appeal, before a two-point penalty was issued this month for a second breach, which the Toffees have also challenged.
Forest were given a four-point deduction in March after an independent commission found their losses to 2022-23 breached the PSR threshold of £61m by £34.5m.
Forest were set to be issued with a six-point deduction – three points for the initial breach and a further three for the size of the breach – but their “early plea” and “co-operation” meant that was reduced to four points.
Premier League clubs can lose £105m over three seasons – £35m per campaign – but Forest’s maximum loss was only permitted to be £61m because they spent two years of the assessment period in the Championship.
The league’s rules state any appeals process should “conclude no later than and if possible some time before 24 May” – five days after the season finishes, but Forest will now have an outcome before then.
Yet they will drop into the bottom three before Sunday’s trip to Goodison Park if Luton beat Brentford on Saturday.
Last week, Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo called the situation at the bottom of the Premier League “a mess”.
In his pre-Everton press conference this Friday, Nuno said: “It’s a game, [which is] very important for both clubs due to the situation we are in. We have been involved in similar situations, the deduction of points. We don’t know exactly how many points we have, both of the sides.”
