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Relegation threatened clubs challenge Everton finances

Burnley and Leeds have written to the Premier League over a belief Everton seriously breached financial rules.

Both clubs wrote a letter to the governing body asking whether the Premier League investigated Everton, who lost £371.8 million over the last three years, what the outcome of the investigation was and if they intend to impose any sanctions.

Premier League clubs are allowed to lose a maximum of £105 million over three years as part of the profit and financial sustainability rules. COVID-related losses can be written off.

However, Leeds and Burnley have pointed out that Everton's pandemic-related losses were more than three times that of other similarly sized clubs. Everton said £170 million of their losses in their annual accounts were related to the pandemic. Aston Villa, for example, put their own figure at £56 million.

The Goodison Park club also only generated £14 million a season from matchday income before the pandemic and the forced closure of football stadiums.

It is understood there are no active legal proceedings, although it could go down that route. There is also no timescale on when this will be dealt with.

If it went down a legal route, it would have the potential to be the biggest legal challenge the Premier League and a club have faced since West Ham paid £20 million to Sheffield United after being fined in 2007 for a breach of third-party rules around the signing of Carlos Tevez.

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire commented: 'Eyebrows have been raised with regards to the magnitude of the Covid losses compared to other clubs. Everton are adamant that they have suffered significantly in the transfer market when trying to get rid of players, They say that Covid has killed the market, which is true to an extent. But it is unlikely that they would have got big fees for a lot of their players anyway. It’s a very high number for a club that only generates £14m per season in matchday income."

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