As the football world awaits the punishment for Manchester City after they were found guilty of 114 charges relating to breaches of Premier League regulations, few clubs will be watching more intently than Everton. Across recent years of enforcement over financial rules, no club has been dealt with more severely than the Blues.
It feels like most of the football world acknowledges this. Within minutes of the reports that Man City had been found guilty, social media was alive with sarcastic questioning of what Everton’s punishment would be. That has become par for the course since PSR, SCR and FFP - obscure, esoteric accounting terms - became a common reference point for discussions over matchday pints and half-time pies.
It feels you can barely go three months without gambling websites coming up with a new viral advert centred on the premise that the Blues will be sanctioned every time another club is accused of some form of wrongdoing. Those clips gain traction because Everton are poster boys for the opaque financial regulations that, if necessary and well-intended, count the creation of a new end-of-financial year transfer deadline, the willingness to sell academy talent, cynical player trading relationships and intra-club sales of buildings and women’s teams among the unintended consequences sucking what joy is left from the modern game at its highest levels.
Everton’s own breaches and punishments
This is not an argument that there should be no constraints on spending - a transparent and comprehensible system has to be in place to create some semblance of competitive fairness. Nor is it an argument that the Blues did not deserve punishment. The club breached the rules twice and, as complex as they may be, were as much to blame as anyone or anything for the situation they found themselves in.
But all that has followed the first breach has been entirely unsatisfactory. The severity of the initial 10-point deduction was extraordinary - greater than the punishments handed to clubs that had entered administration, with all of the knock-on impact that has for businesses and communities reliant on their existence and success. That was, of course, partly acknowledged, by the reduction to six points on appeal. Another two-point deduction followed for a second breach.
Between those verdicts, Nottingham Forest were found to have committed a breach almost twice the size of Everton’s first and yet received a smaller deduction (four points). That was despite the club having opted to reject bids for now-Blues player Brennan Johnson that would have brought them closer to compliance. Everton’s breach, meanwhile, was not found to be deliberate.
Ongoing financial impact
Throw in the millions of pounds Everton lost in merit payments as the combined eight-point deduction sent them plummeting down the league table AND the £35m compensation payout they have been ordered to pay Burnley for the sporting advantage they were said to have gained from the first breach (the club has launched an appeal), and the Blues are still paying a heavy price to this day.
Under new owners the Friedkin Group (TFG), who inherited the repercussions of this turmoil, Everton made clear after the compensation hearing the punishment would not impact their ambitions in the transfer market. It was lost on few that, even if not linked to that ruling, TFG explored the controversial sale of teen starlet Harrison Armstrong to Nottingham Forest earlier this month for… a fee of around £35m. The Blues, therefore, are still dealing with the very-live consequences of what was a relatively minor, accidental breach brought on by the club’s mistakes and a perfect storm of outside events.
Comparisons with Chelsea and Man City
So what of Chelsea, another club that has fallen under the spotlight? They were found to have made more than £47m of secret payments to help build a team that enjoyed immense success for years - titles, domestic glory and two Champions League triumphs. Given the scale and nature of those breaches it was at least a relief to see their case handled with something that resembled the zeal with which Everton were pursued. Oh wait… no. Their punishment? Essentially a £10.75m fine.
And yet they were found to have committed “deliberate breaches of the rules” that “involved deception and concealment in relation to financial matters”. Just a reminder that Everton’s breach was not deemed deliberate and they lost a similar sum in merit payments alone. That fine was, of course, even less than those handed out to the six clubs that explored a breakaway European competition that would have further undermined the integrity of the Premier League.
Given the treatment the Blues have received at the hands of the Premier League and the independent panels who decipher and implement their rules, there is little point holding out hope that Man City will be sanctioned in a consistent manner should the reports of the findings against them be accurate. Maybe there is no punishment that would truly satisfy the understandable concerns of anyone associated with Everton that the club was treated inconsistently. But Everton will be watching. I don’t blame them… but I suspect what little hair anyone at the club has left will be torn out during an all-too familiar fit of frustration and disbelief when this process comes to an end.
