Liverpool and Everton missed out on a combined £118.7m as a result of Manchester City's Premier League rule breaches, according to a recent report from BBC Sport. The report claims that City gained £1.17bn, while the 35 teams that played in the top flight during the period of their cheating could have lost a combined £844m.
Guilty verdict and appeal
City were found guilty by an independent commission of orchestrating a scheme to artificially inflate revenues and reduce costs by nearly £1bn across a nine-season period. The commission ruled against City on every count of breaching financial regulations between 2009-10 and 2017-18, concluding they exploited "sham" commercial arrangements to conceal owner funding and deals designed to lower operating costs, including coaching staff and player wages.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters described the case and its outcome as "the most significant in Premier League history". The same commission will now deliberate over sanctions at a separate hearing, though that might not be for some time after City appealed the independent commission's guilty verdict.
Impact on Liverpool and Everton
It could now be argued that City may not have finished as high as they did during those seasons or assembled such a strong squad had they not cheated. As such, that may have had a direct impact on the money received by top-flight clubs. During that period, City won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and three EFL Cups.
The BBC report estimates that Liverpool missed out on £52.3m, while Everton missed out on £66.4m. The figures are derived from the domestic impact on both clubs, taking into account loss of prize money by league position, missing Champions League earnings, Europa League payments, loss of Premier League status and impact of cup defeats.
Breakdown of losses
City's win over Liverpool in the 2015-16 EFL Cup final was a major blow for the Reds' European hopes, with Liverpool losing on penalties. That Europa League spot went to West Ham United, with Liverpool finishing in eighth place, which wasn't enough for European football.
Manchester United won the Europa League the following year and took home £37.8m in prize money. While the Reds may not have won the tournament, they would have received a £26.6m market pool payment, based on the value of television rights. The Reds finished below City in all nine of those seasons, missing out on £10.6m in placement prize money, taking the total fee up to £52.3m.
Everton missed out on European football on five occasions, missing the Champions League once. That Champions League qualification was worth £32.6m, taking the £39m City earned, minus Everton's £6.4m from Europa League qualification. Missing out on the Europa League on four occasions was worth a combined £23.2m, according to the report, and when adding in the further £10.6m from Premier League prize money, Everton missed out on £66.4m. The Toffees were the third-most impacted club, behind Spurs and Hull City.
