What Sheffield United boss said about points deduction uncertainty as Everton, Nottingham Forest face hearings

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has echoed the thoughts of surely every football fan in the country, by calling for a "quick decision" in the financial cases of two of their relegation rivals - despite admitting his belief that clubs at risk of sporting sanctions have no-one else to blame but themselves.

The picture at the bottom of the Premier League table is still up in the air, to a certain extent, with two clubs facing the threat of points deductions for breaches of Premier League spending rules. Everton have already been docked 10 points but the reduction of that on appeal, to six, has worsened the survival picture for the Blades and left them effectively 12 points adrift of fourth-bottom Forest.

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But the Toffees have been charged with a second breach of spending rules while Forest will face a hearing next week on the same charge, leaving both at risk of sanctions and, perhaps, some light at the end of the tunnel for the Blades. It is a wholly unsatisfactory situation for anyone who believes that Premier League survival should be contested solely on the pitch, rather than in courtrooms and legal hearings, but at the same time teams that do break the rules should not be allowed to do so with impunity.

A decision in both Everton and Forest's cases is expected to be delivered in April but with potential appeals the matters may not be over until May 24 - after the final matches of the season, but before the campaign officially comes to a close at the Premier League's annual general meeting. It is shaping up to be a potentially explosive end to the survival race, with Wilder asked last week if a resolution was needed before the end of the campaign.

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"One hundred per cent," he agreed, "but I don't think it will. I think it needs to because nobody wants to be dealing with this sort of confusion and nobody knowing what's happening. We're playing football and the league table should be the league table.

"Nobody's looking for a team to be deducted points, for going into administration or financial fair play. We want that league table as it is, with no stars or asterisks next to anybody, and hopefully that will be the case next season. It goes to how well your club is run, what you do and how you adhere to the rules. The reason they're there is the reason and the punishments, financially or points, are there as well.

"You don't want to see it but if it does happen, it happens and I don't think there's anyone else to blame apart from the clubs who don't get it right or adhere to the rules. Nobody wants it, though. Everton fans don't want it, Forest fans don't want it. We don't want the confusion and everything else that goes with it every year. Any decision can be made from anywhere. We want a quick solution to all this for everybody's sake so everybody knows where they're at and what they're dealing with."

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Wilder has first-hand experience of clubs going into financial difficulty, having been in charge of Halifax Town when the club went into liquidation back in 2008, while there were delays and issues with wages being paid while he was in charge at Northampton Town later on. "I do get both sides," he admitted when asked if he was a fan of financial fair play rules in general.

"You get what happens over the pond in MLS or NFL and you're off a level playing field, and people talk about coaching and recruitment and one club at the bottom the next year can find themselves winning things. But this is the way it's been in this country for a very long time. Is there a different way? I've not looked too much into it.

"You can't recklessly make decisions; you have to construct and work with what you've got and I think you know my past history, in terms of what can happen at a football club if you don't get it right. There are many cases and no one wants to see that happen. I don't think it'll be to the extent of what's happened in the past where teams dive through leagues and go out of business but it's still the same. It's part of football clubs looking after their own business.

"It's a sorry state of affairs when clubs do go down that road and have to pay a price when eventually the spending comes to an end. It's not the players or the manager at the time that gets punished. It's the football club and the people working in the office for 20 years who lose their jobs, and the people who have followed a football club for 40 or 50 years and then don't have a football club to follow.

"There has to be protection somewhere along the lines. It's a really difficult one to judge but you don't want clubs going out of business, going into administration or liquidation. It's for cleverer people than me to find that answer."