Everton’s season has been one wholly dominated by off-pitch financial matters, thus making it one of the most frustrating and arduous in recent memory.
After all, no fan was first captivated by the sport due to their immense love of the financial restrictions imposed, or the legal framework behind points deductions.
It is entirely not in the spirit of the game, yet it is not a facet that now cannot be avoided.
As such, financial experts like Kieran Maguire have become more important than ever in helping the everyday supporter comprehend what’s going on.
However, there are some things that might be left unsaid given the controversy and anger surrounding this.
Kieran Maguire makes a claim he knows will annoy Everton fans
Speaking on his Price of Football podcast, football finance expert and university lecturer Maguire has offered a fresh update on Everton’s PSR debacle, detailing a frustrating occurrence he knows will unsettle Evertonians.
He claimed: ‘What the commission said is first of all we believe that you have breached the limit and we think it’s a minimum breach of £16.5m.
‘There is a separate issue which the commission says it’s so complicated in our view that we are not going to reach and we are effectively going to kick part of the case into next season. Which is gonna cause further anger from Evertonians.
‘The reason why we’ve ended up with two points is as follows: for breaching the limit you get an automatic three-point penalty. Each £6.5m over the limit, where they got £6.5m, it does seem to be an arbitrary number, we’re going to add on one point so that’s going to be a further two points. So we’re now up to five points.
‘Now the Premier League by all accounts wants a five-point deduction. Where it got that five-point deduction from heaven only knows given they wanted a 12-point deduction for Everton’s first breach.’
We mustn’t forget the Premier League’s awful treatment of Everton
Whilst Everton may well seem content with the eight points they have been deducted this season, having seen their first sanction reduced by four points, this is still a club likely seething under the surface.
After all, the Premier League has been relentless in their efforts to drag the Toffees down, and were it not for those accumulated deductions Sean Dyche’s men would be well safe by now.
However, instead this Sunday’s match with Nottingham Forest has it all on the line, and promises to be the kind of nervous, anxiety-inducing match that they are becoming used to with each passing year.
What’s most frustrating about this PSR process is that, were it up to the division, Everton would be dead and buried by now.
In the first incident, they inexplicably lobbied for a 12-point deduction. Upon appeal, the ten points were reduced to just six, half that initial suggestion.
Then, in the second deduction, once again the Premier League wanted five instead of the two administered. We await the outcome of that appeal.
They have shown their true colours throughout this season, and it is unlikely that an Everton fan will now ever trust their judgement ever again.
