- Sean Dyche’s side are in good form, but a ten-point deduction puts safety at risk
- An independent commission found the Toffees guilty, but the club is appealing
- Anthony Gordon has to leave England to play for Scotland It all comes to the surface
It’s not just the ignominious return to the bottom three, after an all-too-brief flirtation with the middle bracket, that hurts as a fan.
The reputational damage to our club as a result of the largest points deduction in the history of the Premier League could have lasting consequences.
This is a ‘global product’ (it used to be a football match) that reaches households in the most remote places, meaning people all over the world will look at Everton and think ‘wow, what absolute dodge pots, what are they, the new Juventus or something?’
OK, it’s nothing like the 2006 Calciopoli scandal that rocked Italian football, with Juve relegated and Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio deducted 30 points each.
But ‘record Premier League points deductions’ will nevertheless be a stain on our name and on our history. And for what, an overspend of £19.5 million during a pandemic that turned the economy upside down, while building a masterpiece of a stadium that will make a huge contribution to the local environment and the game as a whole. Because you’re trying to compete?
Manager Sean Dyche now sees his team in 19th place, only bottom on goal difference
Everton have been hit with a 10-point deduction for breaching financial rules
You may have noticed that Evertonians have been protesting the way their own club is run over the past year
It’s not just CEO Richard Masters and the spineless Premier League suits we’re angry with. After all, mistreating Everton for this, while state clubs are fined just over £3 million for attempting to destroy the League, is completely in keeping with the absurdity of modern football.
No, you may have noticed that Evertonians have been protesting the way their own club is run over the past year. You know, all those banners and stuff, the occasional flyover?
Dear old Bill Kenwright thought he had found the perfect buyer in Farhad Moshiri, an accountant (ha!) with an insanely wealthy oligarch friend, Alisher Usmanov, in the background.
So we embarked on a spending spree that had been foreign to us during the David Moyes era and of course we weren’t very good at it and there were some bad purchases along the way. Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Cenk Tosun should be dishonored by inverted statues.
But apparently this isn’t the problem, it’s the interest payments on that great new stadium that tipped us over the limit. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire suggested that if we had borrowed that money from a bank, all would have been fine.
Everton strongly deny that they breached PSR and that their financial losses were due to the construction of a new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock
But at least the club held their hands up, acknowledged that they were sailing close to the wind, and tried to be part of the process together with the authorities. That made a big difference.
And besides, the ends hurt. As luck would have it, we only took one of the two Goodison visits I made this season against Luton and Brighton (was that one of the visits?).
That plus the nine points friends and family saw us earn during three trips to London? Should we bill Masters or Moshiri for all that wasted money?
It’s like taking VAR one step further. You don’t dare celebrate goals. Now you don’t dare celebrate victories. The game is over, folks. What a pity.
