Nottingham Forest are likely to have included the Moussa Niakhate sale in their 2023-24 accounts, despite the fact that the transfer occurred after June 30.
That is the opinion of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider that it is “unusual” for clubs to make transfers at the start of a new fiscal year unless absolutely necessary, following Niakhate’s sale to Lyon.
Forest are thought to have been close to their permissible losses limit again after receiving a points deduction last season, with the club needing to generate a significant profit before the June 30 accounting deadline.
Orel Mangala signed a £15 million contract with Lyon, and Odysseas Vlachodimos joined Newcastle United for £12.5 million, both before the end of June.
However, Niakhate’s £27 million transfer to Lyon was not verified until 4 July, raising issues over whether it was included in the 2023-24 accounts.
Nottingham Forest possibly sold Moussa Niakhate to avoid a PSR breach.
Due to Forest’s PSR worries, Borson anticipates the purchase will be completed in accounting terms before June 30.
He told Football Insider: “I believe the substance of the Niakhate transaction will be completed by the end of the year and reflected in the 2023-24 accounts.”
“I believe Forest are another club who fell very short of meeting PSR in the end. They required rather substantial gains from their trades.
“It is not improbable that they pushed the deals so that a couple of them were completed before June 30th and one later.
“It’s unusual to negotiate agreements right away in the new fiscal year unless absolutely necessary since you’d rather wait and see how the market plays out.
“Maybe it is slightly different because Niakhate received a really excellent offer. But I’ll presume that all of the deals we thought were done before the end of the year were actually completed before then.
“From an accounting standpoint, I would assume that all of the deals discussed in that PSR scurry before the end of the year were completed by June 30th.
“But we won’t know for sure for quite a while until the accounts come out. That period will probably start in January and they will all come out before the end of March.”
