September 19, 2024
After being subject to a transfer embargo due to suspected violations of profit and sustainability rules, Leicester City intends to sue the Premier League and the EFL. The Premier League filed charges against the Championship team for allegedly violating expenditure caps over their final three seasons in the top flight.
The Foxes risk losing points the next season after being sent to an independent commission. This is due to the purported PSR violation and their failure to provide audited financial statements. Now that the English Football League has put Leicester under embargo, the team has announced that they are pursuing “urgent legal proceedings” against the two organisations.
A club statement reads: “LCFC has been compelled today to issue two urgent legal proceedings against the Premier League and the EFL. LCFC will be seeking that each of these proceedings is determined by an appropriate and fully independent legal panel. The Club is committed to ensure that any charges against it are properly and proportionately determined, in accordance with the applicable rules, by the right bodies, and at the right time.”
“While LCFC would prefer the proceedings to be in public, so its supporters and the wider world can be informed about the important issues of football governance that will be considered, the relevant rules require that these proceedings are conducted confidentially, and LCFC will therefore not be able to comment further about them at this stage.”
“We reaffirm the Club’s position that we will continue to fight for the right of Leicester City and all clubs to pursue their ambitions, particularly where these have been reasonably and fairly established through sustained sporting achievement.”
“The Club further notes that at 4pm today (Friday, March 22) the EFL issued a public notification that LCFC has been placed under a registration embargo pursuant to its P&S rules. The EFL is aware that LCFC has disputed the EFL’s entitlement to impose this constraint, which is both restrictive and premature, with more than a quarter of the Club’s 2023/24 reporting period remaining.”
Leicester presently sit second in the Championship as they try to secure an immediate return to the Premier League. They face a real threat of a points deduction next term. Just as Everton and Nottingham Forest have faced this season for PSR breaches. The Foxes lost £92.5 million in the 2021/22 season and after suffering a big drop in revenue following their relegation from the top flight in 2022/23, they could be in even more financial danger if they fail to get promoted out of the Championship. Moreover, a transfer embargo makes their future even more bleak.
Enzo Maresca’s Leicester are next in action in the Championship away to Bristol City on Friday, March 29. The foxes will continue to press on with these legal matters in the coming weeks and months as they fight their case. They are currently second in the table, level on points with leaders Leeds, although they do have a game in hand.
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