FFP and Manchester City, or PSR. Right now, the terms feel inextricably intertwined, no matter what the situation.
Everton last season and Nottingham Forest this one have drawn City into discussions and arguments about the Premier League’s Sustainability and Profitability Rules. While City’s case is still pending and probably won’t be resolved before the end of the next season, those two clubs have been sanctioned and have had their points deducted.
The Blues are facing a lengthy and intricate list of charges, and since the hearing’s outcomes will be so significant, enough time must pass for everything to be handled correctly. It explains the protracted argument, but it won’t stop people from using City to make whatever point is being made about their own team, with or without context.
But it might be challenging to stay up to date with all that is happening and why, with so many stories, hearings, and appeals. We thus ask professionals from City, Goodison Park, and the City Ground to provide an update on the current status of the three teams.
Joe Thomas “Everton writer, Liverpool Echo”
Everton’s difficulties started with themselves. The rules have been in place for some time and the club has found itself the subject of questions over its finances because of a track record of poor decisions made by those at the top. While that may be the case, the club – like every club – deserves to be subjected to a fair, consistent and transparent process when it is accused of wrongdoing. It has been anything but.
Three different independent panels have now attempted to interpret the Premier League rules and how they apply to Everton in the form of a sanction. The first found the club deserved to be punished with a 10 point deduction. The second, the appeal board, ruled the club should receive a six point penalty. The third, the Forest commission, looked at Everton and acknowledged they could only speculate at how the appeal board arrived at that six points.
It is the clubs who chose not to adopt a formula that might add a structure to any sanctions. But that three hearings into this there is still a lack of clarity about how they should be calculated is troubling. It is even more concerning given what feel like significant inconsistencies in the application of the rules.
Everton were initially deducted 10 points by a panel that accepted the club’s breach was neither cynical nor deliberate. The appeal board reduced that and suggested the scale of any breach would be a determining factor when considering the severity of the punishment.
