Premier League club Everton have received a hefty 10-point penalty. The club has been penalized for breaching the Premier League’s financial fair play regulations. The points deduction makes it the largest penalty in the competition’s history.
The punishment sees the club drop to the 19th place in the league table, two points adrift of safety. Everton, who have denied any wrongdoing, claim that a sporting sanction for an accounting infringement is unjustified and disproportionate. They have declared their intention to lodge an appeal with the Football League. The club said they were “shocked and deeply disappointed” by the decision.
Interestingly, Leeds, Leicester and Burnley have already sent a letter to the new owners of Everton, 777 Partners. The clubs informed the owners that they intend to take legal action against the club if they are found guilty. All three have been relegated in the last two seasons when Everton barely avoided the drop.
In the case of Everton, an independent commission was appointed following an audit of the financial statements of Premier League clubs for 2021-22. Last year, Burnley and Leeds sent a letter to the Premier League inquiring as to whether Everton had breached the rules after losing £371.8 million in the past three years.
According to Premier League regulations, clubs can lose up to £105m over a three-year period – and breaches of the league’s profitability and sustainability regulations can result in fines or points deductions.
Everton statement
However, Everton issued a statement right after the verdict, denying any wrongdoing. The statement read, “The club believes that the commission has imposed a wholly disproportionate and unjust sporting sanction … Everton maintains that it has been open and transparent in the information it has provided to the Premier League. It has always respected the integrity of the process.
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“The club does not recognise the finding that it failed to act with the utmost good faith. 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.”
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