Everton lost ten points in the Premier League, worsening the crisis
Everton, a founding member of the English Premier League that has been mired in financial crisis, suffered further pain on Friday after being handed a 10-point penalty for breaching the league’s economic rules. The penalty sent Everton to the bottom of the table and left them under threat of relegation from England’s top division at the end of the season.
The announcement of a points penalty was no surprise, but the decision will worsen the crisis that has engulfed Everton, one of English football’s oldest teams, at a time when its future has been placed under a cloud by hundreds of millions of dollars. debts.
An independent competition committee hearing the case against Everton for breaching the league’s profit and sustainability rules announced the sanction. It said the penalty – the biggest in Premier League history – must be applied immediately, a result which dropped the Blues to 19th place from their relatively safer position of 14th and to the same points total, 4, as Burnley the last place.
At the end of each season, the bottom three teams in the Premier League are relegated from the division to the second tier of the Championship.
Everton said it was “shocked and disappointed” by the scale of the sanction and immediately announced it would appeal.
“The club believes that the Commission has imposed a completely disproportionate and unjust sporting sanction,” Everton said. a statement posted on its website. “The club has already indicated that it intends to appeal the decision to the Premier League.”
The team’s perilous financial state required regular cash injections from outside sources to enable the club to continue operating. The most recent loan came from 777 Partners, an American group that agreed to acquire the legendary club in September. That deal has not yet been approved by the Premier League and the Financial Conduct Authority, a regulator, due to questions about 777 Partners’ own finances.
The Premier League led Everton to an independent commission in March after Everton recorded financial losses for the fifth year in a row. Under league rules, teams are not allowed to lose more than 105 million pounds, or $130 million, over a three-year period. Everton acknowledged breaching these rules for the financial year to 2022.
The panel, thus a written judgment of 41 pagesagreed with the Premier League’s assessment that Everton had exceeded the allowable loss amount by 19.5 million pounds (nearly $25 million).
The magnitude of Everton’s punishment raises the prospect of a much bigger punishment awaiting the league’s dominant team, Manchester City. The club has been accused of 115 breaches of regulations relating to its financial reporting. That case, now in its fifth year, has yet to reach a conclusion; it will be heard by a similar panel to the one that decided the Everton case.
While the loss of points significantly increases the likelihood that Everton will suffer a costly relegation to the second tier for the first time in its history, the low points totals achieved so far by some of its relegation rivals could still allow them to escape. Even with a 10-point penalty, Everton are just 2 points behind Luton Town, with the team occupying 17th place – the final position that offers safety and a place in the league for next season.