Let’s discuss Everton Ban. Everton were having a pretty good start to the season, having moved a safe distance away from the relegation zone and looking forward to a top-half finish for the first time in a long time. But if you go back and have a look at the Premier League table right now, you’d find them just a place above last, only above Burnley on goal difference.
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How the hell did that happen over the International Break?
Merseyside club were slapped with a 10-point deduction by the Premier League as a form of punishment for breaching the league’s profitability and sustainability rules.
The club has said they’ll appeal the judgment, but for now, it stands, and we now want to look at what Everton’s ban could mean for other Premier League clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea. Early predictions are already saying it could mean a points deduction or even possible relegation, but it’s actually more complicated than that. Come with us and we’ll explain the possibilities.
First of all, it is important to really understand why Everton were punished with a point deduction in the first place. So, Premier League rules state that clubs are allowed to record a maximum loss of 105 million pounds over a period of 3 years; any more than that and you could be in some serious trouble.
Everton were found guilty of passing that limit by 19.5 million pounds after the 3-year cycle which ended in 2022.
The Merseyside club first denied doing anything wrong but they eventually admitted that they did, but they claimed they passed the limit by 9.7 million pounds, not 19.5 as the Premier League claims.
Everton also claimed that they were entitled to substantial mitigation because of a number of factors. According to the Merseyside club, they believe their punishment should have been a lot less severe because of the COVID-19 pandemic which really affected their ability to sell, their expensive stadium project, the unanticipated termination of the contract of a key player due to unforeseen events, and also how transparent they have been in their cooperation with the Premier League.
But the Premier League didn’t care. They slapped Everton with the 10 point-deduction anyway, the highest number of points to have ever been deducted from a club in Premier League history. Damn!
What does this mean for clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea?
Well, first of all, Chelsea’s and Man City’s breaches appear to be more severe and more long-running than those of Everton. City, for example, currently face 115 charges while Chelsea are being investigated for allegedly making secret payments for transfers under Roman Abramovich, so it’s not looking pretty at all for both clubs.
Another thing to consider here is that Chelsea and Man City were more successful than Everton during the cycle under review. We’re talking Champions League, Premier League, and other domestic trophies won by these clubs. So, you could argue that Chelsea and City’s breaches have much broader consequences than Everton’s and so, should deserve more severe punishment.
But just like journalist David Ornstein pointed out, we should be careful about trying to conclude what will happen to Chelsea and City based on what happened with Everton because they are all very different cases.
The Everton case was rather straightforward. They crossed a limit and they admitted that they did. Pretty straightforward. The Chelsea and City cases are not like that at all. Ornstein said comparing the Everton case with the City or Chelsea case is like comparing pears and apples.
But then, no matter how different the cases are, after deducting a record number of points from Everton, there is now growing pressure on the Premier League to keep the same energy with the bigger clubs. The narrative right now is that the Premier League was eager to punish Everton because they are no longer a big club, and so, even if they are relegated to the Championship, nobody really cares.
It is, however, a little more difficult to do that with clubs like Chelsea and City who could be said to be some of the faces of the league right now. So, the pressure will now be mounting on the Premier League to prove that they’re fair and transparent especially now that everybody is watching.
And it’s not just a matter of deducting 10 points from both clubs right now. In the spirit of fairness, the media and fans will be looking to see much more severe punishments for Chelsea and City as they have more charges and allegations than Everton did.
So, this is a very crucial period for the Premier League; the integrity of the league is currently under a microscope, and we’ll only have to wait to see how the league deals with this.
Anyway, David Ornstein has already reported that the year 2024 will be very crucial for the Manchester City case, so keep your eyes open, guys.
What punishment do you think Man City and Chelsea will be slapped with?
Do you think these European champions could be relegated from the Premier League as a form of punishment for their breaches?
Do you think they’ll just be slapped with a point deduction like Everton?
If they decide to go the point-deduction route, do you think the Premier League will deduct more or less than they did with Everton? Or do you think that Chelsea and City will somehow escape punishment altogether?
Tell us what you think in the comments.
