Everton, the longest-running team in the English top flight, is facing its biggest crisis of the season. A whopping 10 points have been cut from their points tally, and relegation fears are looming.
“An independent committee has imposed an immediate 10-point deduction on Everton for breaching the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR),” the Premier League announced on its official website on Sunday.
Under the Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR), all Premier League clubs are assessed annually for compliance with the rules. Generally, this is done by calculating the sum of a club’s pre-tax profits for the last three years, and if a club has a loss in excess of £150 million over that period, it will be investigated and penalized for non-compliance.
Depending on the severity of the breach, the committee can impose sporting sanctions such as fines or points deductions. The committee decided that Everton’s losses over the past three years were so significant that it decided to impose the severe sanction of a point deduction.
“We lodged a complaint against Everton and referred the case to the Independent Commission earlier this year,” said the Premier League. “During the course of the proceedings, Everton admitted to breaching the PSG regulations at the end of the 2021/22 season, but the extent of the breach remains a matter of debate.
“Over the course of the five-day hearing, the Committee determined that Everton incurred a loss of £124.5 million during the relevant period.”
“As this exceeded the Premier League’s acceptable threshold of £150 million, the Commission concluded that a sporting sanction should be imposed in the form of a 10-point deduction. This sanction takes effect immediately.”
Before the punishment was announced, Everton were in 14th place in the Premier League in the 2023/24 season with 14 points (W4 D3 L5) from 12 games. A 10-point deduction would tie them with Burnley (W4-1 D1-L10), who are currently at the bottom of the league, and drop Everton a whopping five places to 19th on goal difference.
Of course, it’s still early in the season and there are 26 games left until the end of the season, so the Toffees could still manage to stay up if they pick up enough points in their remaining games. Everton have also been on a good run of form recently, with three wins, one draw, and one loss in their last five league games. Their only defeat was a 0-2 loss to local rivals and Premier League giants Liverpool.
However, Everton fans and the club have been left feeling depressed, as 10 points could mean the difference in the next relegation battle.
Prior to the punishment, it had been widely reported that Everton could face a points deduction due to their astronomical deficit. “Everton could be docked 12 points by the Premier League after racking up huge financial losses,” the Telegraph reported on March 25.
Everton’s financial losses were blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic. The global pandemic forced the Toffees to sit out the 2020/21 Premier League season, leaving them with no gate receipts and a reported £130 million loss.레모나토토 주소
As the losses continued to pile up, Everton sought to make up as much of the deficit as possible by releasing players. The club sold top Premier League fullback Lukaku Digne to Aston Villa for £25 million ($40.1 billion), while Brazilian striker Roberto Firmino, who led the team in goals for four years, was also let go when Tottenham Hotspur offered £60 million ($9.64 billion).
In January, Anthony Gordon, a 2001-born winger who was one of the team’s top prospects and touted as the next franchise star, was sold to Newcastle United for £45 million.
Nigerian midfielder Alex Iwobi, who was named Everton’s Player of the Year last season after revolutionizing the Toffees with two goals and eight assists in 38 league games, moved to Fulham for a fee of £22 million, while Italian striker Moisés Keane, who left on loan to Juventus two years ago, completed an outright transfer, costing Everton £27.7 million.
By offloading all of their key players in exchange for the big money, Everton tried to comply with the financial loss rules as much as possible, but the losses were too great and the club ultimately failed to avoid disciplinary action. While the club avoided the worst case scenario of a 12-point deduction, as reported by the Telegraph, they lost 10 points and were expected to face a tough relegation battle this season.
With Everton’s 10-point drop, fans were left wondering if they would see Everton in the Premier League next season.
Known as the longest-running team in England’s top flight, Everton were in danger of being relegated to the second tier for the first time in 72 years last season. The Toffees fought tooth and nail to stay up until the final whistle, winning 1-0 at Bournemouth in the 38th round of the 2022/23 Premier League season to finish 17th. With Everton’s success, Leicester City, Leeds United, and Southampton drop to the second tier.
Everton’s dramatic stay in the top flight began with a five-match winless streak (D1, D4) at the start of the new season, making them the number one relegation candidate, but they turned things around with four wins, one draw, and two losses in seven games, starting with a 3-1 win at Brentford in round six. However, the news of a points deduction during the November A-match break sent a chill down Everton’s spine.
Everton, who have been in the top flight for 73 consecutive years and are the longest-running club in English top-flight history, are facing their biggest challenge yet this season, and it will be interesting to see if they can overcome the challenge with their fans and players, with the pride of the longest-running club on the line.