“…They will still suffer a serious punishment…” Financial Expert Stefan Borson Believes Everton is still in hot seat

Everton has been informed that they may face another six-point deduction following the news that their 10-point punishment was lowered earlier this week. The Toffees’ original punishment, imposed for violating expenditure limits between 2019 and 2022, was lowered on appeal on Monday.

Everton and Nottingham Forest are both under investigation for violating the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) in their 2022-23 accounts. In the face of another looming ban, manager Sean Dyche invoked the “double jeopardy” plea to avoid further punishment. However, financial expert Stefan Borson thinks that Everton may face punishment because of this recurrent infraction.

Borson, who previously advised Manchester City and has spoken out on a number of financial issues in the Premier League this season said: “This double jeopardy thing is incorrect. This is about natural justice in a three-year period in which you’ve already been punished twice, and the second Independent Commission will have no trouble recognizing what is fair in that context and why they shouldn’t be punished twice for the same period.”

“That said, it will clearly see another breach as being a serious matter because of the things you look at in the assessment of the PSR is the trend. Clearly the trend has gone against them in breaching, because if the trend had continued to improve, they wouldn’t have been in breach. Everton have had pretty big losses for 2022-23 – they haven’t released their accounts yet, but they’re due to be released publicly by the end of March – but we know they were signed off in November or December, and like many clubs, they’ve held onto them. We don’t know what the number for Everton is, but we know that the loss for 22-23 was very big, and therefore, they will still suffer a serious punishment.”

Dyche’s side outperformed both Forest and Brentford in their appeal, which came after the original committee admitted to making two “legal errors” in their initial sentence. But Borson believes Everton are not out of hot water just yet:

“I think you can work on the basis that the starting point will be another six, and then you’ll discount for the two years where they’ve already had a penalty, and it gets you back to two or maybe three [points], or maybe one. I still think they’ll get an additional points deduction, it’s just that it’ll be assessed in the overall context. Most of their arguments are unlikely to succeed because they’ve already been run, and so I think it’s a relatively straightforward decision for the Independent Commission on Everton.”

Borson did note that Forest may be spared such a severe deduction due to only being in the English top flight since 2022. Clubs in the English Football League (EFL) are required to stay within a significantly lower loss threshold than the Premier League’s £105 million ($133 million).

Reports claim that Forest will discover their fate in early March, with the deadline for both lawsuits set on April 8. Each team will then have seven days to appeal, with the results due on May 24 – five days after the end of the 2023-24 Premier League season.