(Football news) A five-point margin of safety and the only thing keeping the Toffees from the basement of the Premier League standings after their punishment is their superior goal differential over Burnley, which drops them from 14th to 19th place.
With two draws, six losses, and four victories in their first 12 games of the season, Everton has already accumulated 14 points.
A five-point margin of safety and the only thing keeping the Toffees from the basement of the Premier League standings after their punishment is their superior goal differential over Burnley, which drops them from 14th to 19th place.
With two draws, six losses, and four victories in their first 12 games of the season, Everton has already accumulated 14 points.
“An independent Commission has imposed an immediate deduction of 10 points on Everton FC for a breach of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSRs),” read a statement from the Premier League announcing the decision.
“The Premier League issued a complaint against the club and referred the case to an independent Commission earlier this year. During the proceedings, the club admitted it was in breach of the PSRs for the period ending season 2021-22 but the extent of the breach remained in dispute.
“Following a five-day hearing last month, the Commission determined that Everton FC’s PSR Calculation for the relevant period resulted in a loss of £124.5m, as contended by the Premier League, which exceeded the threshold of £105m permitted under the PSRs. The Commission concluded that a sporting sanction in the form of a 10-point deduction should be imposed. That sanction has immediate effect.”
The Premier League had pushed for a points deduction, arguing that the financial breaches gave Everton a “sporting advantage” and so deserved a “sporting sanction”.
“Everton Football Club is both shocked and disappointed by the ruling of the Premier League’s Commission,” read a statement from the Merseyside outfit.
“The club believes that the Commission has imposed a wholly disproportionate and unjust sporting sanction. The club has already communicated its intention to appeal the decision to the Premier League. The appeal process will now commence and the club’s case will be heard by an Appeal Board appointed pursuant to the Premier League’s rules in due course.
“Everton maintains that it has been open and transparent in the information it has provided to the Premier League and that it has always respected the integrity of the process. The club does not recognise the finding that it failed to act with the utmost good faith and it does not understand this to have been an allegation made by the Premier League during the course of proceedings. Both the harshness and severity of the sanction imposed by the Commission are neither a fair nor a reasonable reflection of the evidence submitted.
“The club will also monitor with great interest the decisions made in any other cases concerning the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules. Everton cannot comment on this matter any further until the appeal process has concluded.”
“A financial penalty for a club that enjoys the support of a wealthy owner is not a sufficient penalty,” the independent commission stated in their written reasoning for reaching the decision, concurring that only a points reduction would be appropriate.
Additionally, the commission rejected the idea that Everton’s new stadium project was partially to blame for the FFP violations, asserting that the team’s overspending (primarily on new player acquisitions and its incapacity to offload players) and lower-than-expected league finish in FY 2022 (16th against the projected 6th) resulted in a loss of approximately £21 million in expected revenue.
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