With last weeks announcement that the Premier League had deducted Everton FC 10 points for breaches of Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, the eyes of the football world are now firmly fixed upon The Toffee’s reaction and the fallout across the entire football landscape.
Everton’s 10 points, the harshest punishment ever handed to a Premier League team, opens them up to the prospect of paying millions in compensation to other clubs, such as Leeds, Leicester, Burnley and Southampton, who were relegated in recent seasons while Everton just managed to stay up.
Each club has 28 days to take action against Everton, who find themselves second from bottom, two points from safety, after the deduction. Any compensation award will be decided by the Premier League commission which investigated Everton’s breach.
Under Premier League rules, clubs are allowed to lose a maximum of £105m over three years. The commission found Everton overreached their allowed losses by more than £19m and concluded: “This was a serious breach that requires a significant penalty.”
We will see over the next few weeks just how this story develops, but the decision has most football fans screaming ‘what about Manchester City’ (and Chelsea)!
Whereas Everton were found guilty of just one breach of FFP regulations, Manchester City have been charged with 115 (you read that correctly) separate breaches.
This leaves the tantalising prospect of The Premier League and Champions League winners being relegated by several divisions – can you picture De Bruyne, Grealish and Haaland turning out at Forest Green, Grimsby and Barrow!!
Of course, state-owned (lets be honest) Manchester City have access to the world best lawyers and they deny all 115 charges, so a guilty verdict and relegation is far from certain, but it has resulted in fans across the world keeping a very close eye on proceedings.
We also have the prospect of Chelsea being investigated for other FFP breaches and the potential resulting punishment for the London giants if found guilty -
As one of the oldest, most traditional and iconic English teams, Everton seem a strange hill for the Premier League to risk their FFP rules dying on and only the most stringent pursuit of Manchester City and equally harsh punishment if found in breach, will stop the accusations of a biased, corrupt process – a fascinating prospect as the Premier League seasons steams towards halfway.
Stay Tuned!!!
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