Sympathy for Everton, but the club did blunder

Breaking the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations over the three-year period ending in season 2021-22 has earned Everton a 10 point deduction, the first in the top flight.. Specifically, according to the findings of a regulatory commission, the club exceeded the permitted losses by a sum of £19.5million and “submitted misleading information about the stadium financing costs”.

Even among rival fans, there was sympathy for Everton on Friday. Is financial mismanagement and errant book-keeping on this scale — an overspend of £19.5million higher than permitted over a three-year period in which the club finished 12th, 10th and 16th — really the most grievous offence committed by any club in the Premier League era?

It is a legitimate question, even if those clubs relegated over that period are entitled to feel aggrieved that Everton breached the rules in staying up at their expense.

Everton, who immediately announced their intention to appeal, called it a“wholly disproportionate and unjust” sanction, adding they would “monitor with great interest the decisions made in other cases concerning the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules.”

For all the genuine sympathy felt by many over the points deduction, for all the us-against-the-world instinct that will grip their fanbase, the real grievance felt by their supporters should still be — as it has been all along — the shoddy, shady way in which a proud club has been mismanaged in recent years.

The commission’s report underlines a series of uncomfortable truths that the fanbase has echoed when the conversation has been about the need for regime change, rather than sanction: 1) “mismanagement” in running up such big losses; 2) “recklessness” in continuing to sign players in 2021-22 “despite repeated warnings” by the Premier League, 3) a business plan which relied so heavily on the largesse of USM Services Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands and owned by Alisher Usmanov, one of the oligarchs sanctioned by the UK government after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Everton’s ownership and board were warned. They were already close to their break-even limits in the summer of 2020 when, to the astonishment of some of their rivals, and with their revenue streams severely compromised by the Covid-19 pandemic, they signed Ben Godfrey, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure and James Rodriguez adding £16million to their wage bill and making a loss of £120.9million.

All that excess spending, which put the club at serious risk, brought so little reward by way of reward. A seventh-place finish in year one, under Ronald Koeman, remains their highest under Moshiri’s ownership. They have not got beyond the quarter-finals of any cup competition. A 10-point deduction in either of the last two seasons, which were spent battling grimly against This year? Going by their recent results under Sean Dyche and the struggles of the promoted teams, they could well be fine.

Some within the game wonder whether the Premier League has thrown itself into a series of bruising battles, some of which it will not win.

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The Political Economy of Football V2

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