Everton became the sixth club in Premier League history to experience a points deduction.
However, it is the first time Everton has been cut due to FFP (Financial Fair Play).
“The Independent Committee has imposed an immediate 10-point deduction on Everton for breaching the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR),” the Premier League announced on its official website on Sunday.
“Everton insisted they had complied with the rules and would ‘vigorously defend’ their position, arguing that exemptions related to the Covid-19 crisis would exonerate them,” the club said in a statement ahead of the punishment, but Everton’s defense was initially unsuccessful.
Each year, the Premier League assesses each club’s compliance with the rules through its Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
Generally speaking, clubs are assessed by adding up their pre-tax profits for the previous three years, and if they lose more than £150 million over that period, they will be investigated and penalized for non-compliance.
Everton’s losses and profits over the past three years were examined and found to be £124.5 million, and the Premier League deemed Everton’s losses excessive and imposed a severe penalty of a 10-point deduction.
“We lodged a complaint against Everton and earlier this year referred the case to an independent committee,” the Premier League said.
“During the course of the proceedings, Everton admitted to breaching the PSG regulations at the end of the 2021/22 season, but the extent of the breach remains a matter of debate.”
The punishment makes Everton the first Premier League team to have points deducted for breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
In March 2019, Birmingham City were docked nine points in the English Championship (second tier) for an FFP violation, and in November 2021, Derby County were penalized by a whopping 21 points.
The Premier League is no stranger to point deductions.
However, unlike some cases in the Championship, Everton is the only club in the Premier League to have points deducted for FFP.
The Daily Mail, a British media outlet, reported on the history of point deductions on April 18, titled “Man Utd and Arsenal’s point deductions 30 years ago and Everton’s since.”
“Everton became the sixth club in the history of the English top flight to be docked points,” the Daily Mail reported. The club has vowed to appeal the decision, but it’s not the first time they’ve been docked points, as Manchester United and Arsenal have faced.
Both teams were heavily penalized for on-field brawls, not financial violations.”
Manchester United and Arsenal were previously disciplined by the league’s governing body for a mass brawl between players from both teams during a league match at Old Trafford in October 1990. 토토
Midway through the game, Arsenal defender Nigel Winterburn made a hard tackle on United player Dennis Irwin, which sparked a brawl that involved a total of 21 players.
Some players tried to break it up, but it only added to the chaos, and the fans had to watch.
In the end, both teams were fined £50,000 (approximately $80,000) after the game, along with a point deduction, and despite the brawl, no red cards were shown in the game.
At the time, Arsenal were docked two points and United were docked a point.
According to the Daily Mail, the first case of a point deduction occurred more than 100 years ago, with Sunderland in the 1890/91 season.
Sunderland were docked two points for fielding an unregistered player at the time.
Middlesbrough were docked three points for not playing in the 1996/97 season, and in March 2010, Portsmouth were relegated to the Championship after losing nine points for filing for bankruptcy and failing to pay employees.
Another example of a club being relegated due to a points deduction was Tottenham.
“Tottenham were ordered to be docked 12 points for financial offenses ahead of the 1994/95 season, which were later overturned,” the outlet explained.
The club was investigated for signing illegal players under Irving Shola, who was found guilty and fined £600,000 (approximately $960,000), banned from the FA Cup, and docked 12 points.
However, an appeal by then-Tottenham chairman Alan Sugar resulted in the club paying an additional fine and avoiding the points deduction and FA Cup disqualification.
Along with these other cases, Everton became the first club in Premier League history to be docked points for violating FFP.
Following the points deductions, the supercomputer released its predicted standings, which, contrary to expectations, did not include Everton in the relegation zone.
The Sun, a British publication, published the final rankings predicted by its supercomputer on Monday, titled “Predicted Premier League positions for the 2023/24 season after Everton’s 10-point deduction”.
The Sun’s rankings suggest that Everton could finish the season in 17th place, even though the Toffees are currently in 19th place due to their punishment. Instead of Everton, the supercomputer predicted relegation for promoted teams Burnley, Sheffield United, and Luton Town, who currently sit in 20th, 19th, and 17th place.
“However, with Everton now facing relegation, some of their top stars may consider a move away,” said The Sun, noting that the January transfer window could go differently if Everton players leave the club.
The Premier League’s secretariat listed a lengthy list of regulations that City breached in each of the seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18, including regulations on managers’ salaries from 2009/10 to 2012/13, regulations on players’ salaries from 2010/11 to 2015/16, regulations relating to the Financial Fair Play regulations set out by the European Football Association (UEFA) from 2013/14 to 2017/18, league regulations on profitability and sustainability from 2015/16 to 2017/18, and breaches by stakeholders working with the club from December 2018 to the present.
Some media outlets have commented on City’s punishment, saying, “There is no doubt about the severity.
There has never been anything like this in the history of English soccer,” and “If even half of the charges are proven to be true, we expect City to be relegated.”
It was even suggested that “the league could push for the club’s release”.
Pep Guardiola, who currently manages City, responded to the allegations by saying, “We are already being accused, just as we were when we were disciplined by UEFA in the past,” adding, “At that time, the club proved to be completely innocent.
We must realize that we are now being accused without even the opportunity to defend ourselves.
If we are not innocent, we will accept the Premier League’s decision.”
Chelsea is facing a disciplinary crisis after it was revealed that the club violated Financial Fair Play (FFP) under former owner Roman Abramovich.
“Chelsea could face a points deduction after leaked documents revealed breaches of Financial Fair Play (FFP) during Roman Abramovich’s tenure as owner,” the Daily Mail recently claimed.
Abramovich, who bought Chelsea in 2003 and built the club into one of Europe’s top teams, decided to sell the club after being sanctioned by the British government over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A consortium led by Todd Boley then became Chelsea’s new owners when they bought the club in May last year.
“The investigation has uncovered a series of payments worth tens of millions of pounds over a decade during Abramovich’s time as owner,” the Daily Mail said, adding that “beneficiaries appear to have included Ethan Azhar’s agent, Antonio Conte’s associates and other Chelsea officials.”
The outlet referred to the circumstances of Azhar’s move to Chelsea from LOSCille in the summer of 2012.
“When Chelsea signed him, his agent wanted a fee of around £6 million,” they said, “and according to a March 2013 document, a company owned by Abramovich agreed to pay €7 million to a Dubai-based firm for ‘advisory services related to sports research and consultancy’.”
The allegation is that the fee paid to Azar’s agent came out of Abramovich’s personal wallet, not Chelsea’s transfer budget.
This is a practice known as “financial doping,” and European soccer has banned the practice of funneling money to clubs owned by billionaires, including those in the Middle East.
In addition to this, Chelsea’s spending practices under Abramovich, such as the re-signing of Conte, continued to violate FFP, according to British media outlets.
However, there are claims that the two teams’ situations may be somewhat different.
“Chelsea are still under investigation and believe that Roman has spent enough money to break Premier League rules,” says The Times.
Owner Todd Boley has self-reported the matter and it seems inevitable that he will be found guilty.
For City, the case is unlikely to be resolved for at least two years,” he said, emphasizing that unlike Chelsea, which could face discipline immediately, City needs time.
There was no shortage of mockery from rival fans as they watched the two teams tremble in fea
r. “Rival fans have taunted City that they will end up playing outside the league after Everton’s drop in points,” the Sun reported.
“City were charged with 115 counts in February and financial experts warned they could be relegated from the Premier League if the charges are upheld.
“A former City adviser pointed out that the charges against the club were far more serious than the current Everton situation, and some fans claimed they would be expelled from the Football League,” the report said, noting that some fans have mentioned the possibility of a City expulsion.
“They said they would be playing games like York City and Bromley in front of crowds of less than 5000. Only Everton fans didn’t see the funny side of their situation at all.”
Fans took to social media to criticize the Toffees’ situation, saying “City need a 3x points deduction,” “Logic dictates they should be relegated,” “They should be playing in the National League (fifth division),” and “They will have the opportunity to drop 1150 points.”
The news of Everton’s points deduction, coupled with the increased focus on past examples of points deductions and teams that could lose points in the future, is likely to keep Premier League teams on edge for some time.
