Everton’s second disciplinary hearing for breaching spending rules will take place next week, with the Independent Commission judging the case set to work over the Easter weekend in a desperate attempt to meet the Premier League’s strict timetable. 

The Premier League have committed to announcing a verdict on Everton’s second charge of breaking Profit and Sustainability Rules by April 8 to reduce the chances of PSR rows leaving them with a provisional table at the end of the season.

Nottingham Forest were yesterday docked four points by an Independent Commission for a £34.5million spending breach over the 2020/23 period, with Everton also charged with overspending during the same timeframe. The club have already been docked six points this season for overspending between 2019 and 2022, and will use the fact of that sanction as mitigation in their second hearing on the grounds that they have already been punished once.

The club are resigned to receiving some form of points deduction that will increase their chances of being relegated after Forest were plunged into the bottom three after losing four points yesterday.

Everton’s second disciplinary hearing for breaching spending rules is set to be held next week

The club have already been docked six points and are facing another deduction by the league

The Premier League are scrambling to get both cases concluded as quickly as possible to avoid the nightmare scenario of the relegation battle being left undecided at the end of the season. 

Due to the significant overlap between the cases and the limited precedents elsewhere any appeal by Forest cannot be heard until the verdict of Everton’s second charge is published next month, which could leave the Premier League with less than six weeks to conclude two appeals before the end of the season.

The Premier League have set a so-called backstop date of 24 May to resolve matters once and for all, but will desperate for final verdicts in both the Everton and Forest cases to have been published a week earlier ahead of the final day of the season on 19 May.