Nottingham Forest have been docked four points for breaching Premier League financial rules.

The deduction sees Forest drop into the relegation zone, leaving them 18th with nine games to play.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side are now four points above Burnley and still have to play at Turf Moor on the final day.

Luton, who are without victory in their last eight league matches, are now a point above the drop zone.

The Premier League said Forest admitted breaching profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) by £34.5million above their permitted threshold of £61million.

The commission noted: “The four points sanction is not to punish Forest so much as it is to be fair to the other clubs; to give the public confidence that when a club invests as Forest did to compete in the Premier League, it still needs to comply with the PSR threshold for losses.”

It added: “When a club like Forest took the risk of effectively ignoring the PSR warning from its finance director before the January window in 2023, and rather than looking to sell players, it added players to its squad, ultimately leaving itself with just two weeks to sell Player A (Brennan Johnson) in the summer 2023 window, such risk taking and ‘sailing close to the wind’ needs a proportionate sanction to maintain the integrity of the Premier League.”

At the time of writing, Forest are yet to issue a statement on whether they will be appealing the decision.

Everton were docked 10 points in November for breaching PSR, which was reduced to six on appeal. A more recent complaint against the Toffees is still being dealt with.

Burnley are back in action on Saturday, March 30 when they head to the capital to take on Chelsea. Vincent Kompany's side will be looking to build on their 2-1 victory against Brentford.