Everton are currently in 16th place on 27 points with a game in hand, while Forest are 17th on 25 points, ahead of Luton on goal difference. Ex-Everton winger Townsend is now playing for Luton, and while he hasn’t commented on the individual cases of his rivals, he believes the way the process is being handled is extremely poor. It doesn’t make sense.”

He added: “When you are announcing PSR or whatever it is and you are announcing punishments, at the start why would you not have blanket punishments?

Like, administration back in the day, everyone knew it was 10 points. “Why did they not set this up at the start? Why are we having this nonsense now mid-way through the season?

It is almost twice the £44.7m deficit of the previous year that contributed to their six-point deduction, which came after they successfully appealed against the original 10-point hit. “Everton remains committed to working collaboratively with the league on all matters relating to PSR but is extremely concerned by the inconsistency of different commissions in respect of points deductions applied,” the club said in a statement on Monday, which confirmed they plan to appeal against the decision. “That the Premier League sought a sanction of eight points as a starting point was utterly disproportionate when compared to the nine points that their own rules prescribe for insolvency,” Forest said in a statement.

“We were also surprised that the Premier League gave no consideration at all to the unique circumstances of the club and its mitigation.”

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