Everton's heavy penalty has attracted public opinion! Punish Manchester City and Chelsea for relegation, does the Premier League dare?
On November 17, the Premier League officially announced that Everton was fined 10 points for violating the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules (PSR) and was immediately enforced. The Toffees, whose performance improved slightly this season, instantly fell to the bottom and had to fight for relegation again. The Premier League's resolute action against Everton immediately set off an uproar: the British media paid attention to whether the Premier League overlord Manchester City and Chelsea, who had been charged with as many as 115 violations at the beginning of the year, could not escape punishment? There is even an opinion that they will face the capital punishment of deducting 30 points or even being relegated.
The Premier League has always been interested in strictly enforcing the PSR rules, and punishing Everton is a "chicken and monkey". PSR rules limit clubs to no more than £250 million in cumulative losses for three consecutive seasons, while Everton's total losses in the past three seasons are as high as £372 million, exceeding the standard by £122 million. The Independent Commission of Inquiry found that Everton lost £124.5 million in the 2021/22 season, exceeding the PSR rule cap of £105 million, with a penalty of 10 league points and immediate enforcement.
Everton had just 14 points, but after deducting points, they dropped to four, and they are joint with Burnley at the bottom of the Premier League, and it is likely to end a glorious 69-season streak in the English top flight since 1955/56. Everton have appealed against the breach, but back in August 2021, Everton had to get approval from the Premier League for every signing. The club has been repeatedly warned for many violations, but it still spends a lot of money to recruit and increase losses. The independent commission had imposed a penalty of up to 12 points, which was reduced to 10 points.
To add insult to injury, Everton also faces huge claims totalling £300 million from three clubs that were relegated from the 2021/22 season, Burnley, Leeds United and Leicester City. If the claim is successful, not only will the acquisition by the American consortium of 777 Partners fail, but Everton may be completely bankrupt.
Compared with Everton, who was beaten as a "bird", the football world is more concerned about the fate of the two giants, Manchester City and Chelsea.
Liverpool legend Carragher, Daily Mail columnist Herbert all complained about Everton, Manchester City was fined 49 million pounds by UEFA as early as 2014 for misrepresenting the amount of sponsorship of Abu Dhabi United Airlines, but was not deducted points by the Premier League. Before 2021, the club's expenditure on hardware facilities was not included in the loss, but from 2022 onwards, the investment in hardware facilities was included in the expenditure, which was very unfavorable to Everton, who built the new stadium. The responsibility for the loss of up to £200 million in expected revenue due to the British government's sanction of Everton's sponsor Usmanov should not be borne by the club.
Ironically, Everton, who have spent zero net on the past two seasons in the transfer window and fully cooperated with the Premier League in order to meet the FSR rules, ended up falling victim to the Premier League's prestige. Instead, Manchester City, who refused to hand over their financial documents for review by the Independent Inquiry Committee, are still unscathed. Not to mention the net expenditure of 736 million euros in the past three transfer windows, far exceeding Chelsea's single-season revenue (548 million euros) - the Blues lost 123 million pounds in 2021/22, and the past two seasons have inevitably lost a lot of money due to the huge amount of investment in reinforcements, but they have not been reviewed by the independent investigation committee.
The British media led by The Times believe that the former has been charged by an independent commission of inquiry for as many as 115 years this spring, spanning as long as nine years, and will be fined at least 30 points compared to Everton's punishment standard. Stefan Bosen, a former legal adviser to Manchester City, said that if Manchester City and Chelsea are convicted, they are likely to be relegated not only by 30 points. Boson, a former Manchester City financial adviser who is very familiar with PSR rules, has his pessimism causing City and Chelsea fans to worry about the club's future.
Chelsea, the new American owner Boehly, voluntarily "turned himself in", reporting that the former owner Abu may use offshore companies to make illegal payments to the club to reduce losses during his tenure, and also faces penalties. The Premier League has not yet launched an investigation into the matter, but Boehly has been frantically recruiting after taking over Chelsea, and whether the losses are excessive has been the subject of much attention. A penalty of 30 points would not only cost Manchester City and Chelsea qualification for next season's Champions League, but the latter could even be relegated.
For Manchester City and Chelsea, the best thing to do is to drag. As The Telegraph puts it, the reason why City have not been punished is because the sheer volume of allegations is too broad and deep, and the scale and complexity of the breaches far exceed those of Everton. It will inevitably take more time for the Independent Commission of Inquiry to clarify all the issues and make reasonable "sentencing". Manchester City also saw that Everton unconditionally cooperated with the investigation, but was sentenced to death for exceeding the loss of only 20 million pounds, and must defend itself with all its might, and the investigation and defense process will be longer. The possibility of Manchester City being punished in the short term is almost non-existent, not to mention the fact that even if the penalty is introduced, there is still a chance of appeal.
The deep-pocketed Abu Dhabi royal family will not allow Manchester City to suffer a penalty of 30 points or relegation, and the team of lawyers hired at a sky-high price will do their best. Whether they can treat everyone equally and severely punish giants like Manchester City and Chelsea in accordance with the rules is also testing the courage of the Premier League. After all, even if the six giants threatened to leave the Premier League and tried to join the European Super League, the punishment was only a total of 22 million pounds of fines, and there were no points deducted.
But compared with the low-key actions in the past, the British media is also discussing, does the official Premier League's public stance on Everton mean that the Premier League really wants to kill the "double blue"?