It has been an earthquake in the Premier League. The withdrawal of 10 points from Everton was a warning to sailors about respect for the Premier League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSr) or, in other words, the financial Fair Play of the most powerful football league in the world.. The navigators are Manchester City and Chelsea. “The Premier League is a loss-making model that goes against financial sustainability, so the fact that it is beginning to take steps to defend said sustainability seems like the right path to us,” LaLiga sources explain to ELMUNDO.
It is a step against a historic club, but not as powerful currently as the skyblues and blues can be. “It will be difficult to mess with City, but it is the next step,” explains Anjara Argibay, professor of Sports Law at the European University. In effect, the Premier has decided to impose a serious sanction on Everton that involves the withdrawal of 10 points after the analysis of an infraction. Only Manchester City has 115, so the future of the northern English team could be more complicated.
The independent commission that has been in charge of the Everton case has had to study more than 40,000 documents referring to the period from 2020/21 to 2022/23. They reflected the costs of the construction of a new stadium, the impact of covid and the transfers of certain players.. In the opinion of the commission, Everton had provided them with inaccurate information and that is why they applied a serious sanction (there are very serious and minor ones) that ends with the Tofees in 19th place in the Premier, with only four points.
The Liverpool club stadium. EFE
A position and a sanction that could get worse, since Burnley, Leicester and Leeds have announced that they will appeal the commission's decision as they consider themselves harmed by Everton's practices after having been relegated in the years of the investigation.. The reduction could increase nine more points, which would mean, de facto, the relegation of the British club to the Second Division, according to the Mail.. Something that has not happened since 1951.
With only 10 points, Everton has already suffered the biggest punishment imposed in the history of the Premier. A sanction, the withdrawal of points, which only has two precedents. Middlesbrough were deducted three points for failing to complete a match against Blackburn in the 1996/97 season and in 2010 Portsmouth were deducted nine for entering bankruptcy proceedings.. Both clubs ended up going down to the Championship, the English Second Division.
With this sanction against Everton it seems that the Premier has acknowledged the receipt of the British Government after it, at the beginning of the year, approved a white paper (regulations), as well as an independent body to control English football, with numerous losses in recent years. years. “That the British Government has created a white paper on this matter, has launched an independent regulator and placed the issue of football sustainability among its priorities, seems to us to be a success and an endorsement of the LaLiga model,” they explain. sources from the Spanish competition.
Now, all the British media assume that Manchester City, accused of not complying with financial Fair Play, and Chelsea, which have been discovered making unauthorized payments through offshore companies, will suffer an even greater punishment than the club. from Liverpool. The vast majority of media and experts in the United Kingdom are betting on an administrative relegation for both teams. In the case of City, they believe that the decision of the independent commission regarding its 115 infractions could be delayed, at least, around two years.
Administrative sanctions
“Financial sanctions do not make sense, that is why they apply the administrative route,” explains Argibay.. In fact, FIFA fined City 340,000 euros for violating the rules on signing minors and UEFA did the same with Chelsea in July, with 9.8 million euros for irregularities committed between 2012 and 2019.. The London club, in the last two transfer markets, has spent more than 1,000 million euros according to Transfermarkt.
LaLiga created its Financial Fair Play in 2012, a system that allowed football to be brought out of the abyss, since more than twenty clubs were in bankruptcy, and make it sustainable. In England they are 11 years behind, but it seems that they are accelerating in recent months. “The Premier is trying, but the Spanish system is more strict and exhaustive. LaLiga's economic control was increasing and the English system will follow the same path,” explains Argibay.
There is a big difference with respect to Spanish football and that is that “unlimited capital injections” are allowed there, according to Argibay and LaLiga has denounced. From the national competition they speak of “economic doping” of 3.5 billion between the Premier and the Championship in the last five years.
What happens with City and Chelsea will determine the path that the Premier and, also, Everton want to take. “The club will follow with special attention the decisions made in other cases related to the Premier's sustainability and income standards,” he explained in his statement after being sanctioned. It seems easy to imagine which two clubs Everton is referring to without mentioning them.