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Toffees’ punishment changes everything
COMMENT: Now we know the Premier League really is serious about enforcing its financial rules.
And Manchester City as well as Chelsea in particular may need an industrial scale mop to soak up the sweat pooling at their feet.
For all the talk about scrutiny, rules and a determination to ensure clubs lived within their means, nobody really thought Prem chiefs meant it. The general view was that it was all a bit of a show. Window dressing. Never actually going to be acted upon.
Yet, suddenly, with Everton sucker-punched with the biggest penalty in the League’s 30-year history — a ten-point deduction — and facing a likely season-long fight against a relegation that could be the final nail in the famous old Merseyside club’s coffin, the entire picture has been altered.
The Toffees, swinging in all directions, made clear they will push for equal action elsewhere.
Attacking the “harshness and severity” of the punishment, Everton’s statement noted: “The club will monitor with great interest the decisions made in any other cases concerning the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules.”
But a new standard has been set. In their 41-page written reasons, a three-man independent commission, headed by David Phillips KC, made clear that the Premier League — under fire from Westminster and other critics — has an obligation to come down hard on clubs who try to cheat the system.
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