Nottingham Forest have had their appeal against a four-point deduction rejected, the Premier League confirmed on Tuesday.
The club were hit with a four-point deduction in March after they were found to have breached Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
Forest said at the time they were extremely disappointed with the decision and appealed, but an independent commission has dismissed their protest.
That leaves Forest in a relegation battle — they are on 29 points, three points ahead of 18th-placed Luton. Both clubs have just two games remaining.
In a statement, the Premier League confirmed the appeal has been rejected on two grounds.
“The club argued that the independent Commission committed an error in not treating its sale of a high-profile player shortly after the assessment period as a mitigating factor, and that it committed a further error in electing not to suspend some or all of the points deduction it imposed,” the Premier League said.
“Each of these grounds was rejected by the Appeal Board, which found the independent Commission was entitled to immediately impose the sanction it did. The four-point deduction will therefore remain in place.”
Earlier this season, Everton had their points deduction for breaching Premier League financial rules reduced to six points from 10 after an appeal.
Premier League regulations stipulate that a club can lose no more than £105 million ($133.6m) over a three-year period.
The rules apply differently to Forest, owing to the fact that they were in the second-tier Championship until 2022, where clubs are permitted a maximum loss of £39m ($49.6m) across three seasons or £13m ($16.6m) per season, meaning their permissible losses over the last three campaigns would add up to £61m ($77.7m).
Forest were charged in January for breaching those regulations over the period ending in the 2022-23 season.
