Everton and Manchester City update emerges on FFP breaches in Premier League
David Ornstein has shared an update on Everton and Manchester City’s alleged financial fair play breaches, revealing a new twist already.
The Toffees are currently being investigated by an independent commission having allegedly broken the Premier League’s FFP rules, with the league requesting that Sean Dyche’s side be deducted 12 points should they be found guilty [The Telegraph, 25 October].
This report has seen much backlash given the seeming lack of punishment received by Manchester City after they broke the restrictions an alleged 115 times without genuine punishment, but Ornstein has revealed that City’s case was always expected to take “years” unlike Everton’s.
Writing in his Athletic Q&A (2 November) he said: “I’m not aware of the City case being put on the back burner. It is very different to the Everton case. City face 115 alleged breaches, whereas Everton face one alleged breach.
“City’s alleged breaches are also of a very different nature to Everton’s and cover a much longer period of time. It seems all parties were ready for Everton’s case to be heard when it was (last week), where they are not in the case of City.
“The expectation since the City news broke in February was that this could take years to resolve, so we’re going to have to be patient.”
Be patient
While it will be frustrating for Everton supporters to face the prospect of potentially being deducted 12 points should the Toffees be found guilty, it seems as though the situation at Goodison Park currently is completely incomparable to the one at the Etihad.
The Toffees have always known when their case will be heard and have been prepared for that prospect and have been adamant that they have broken no rules throughout the process and that has not had any correlation to the investigation with Manchester City.
It does seem slightly unfair that Dyche’s side could face a punishment in the coming weeks and months when City could remain unpunished for years, despite allegedly breaking the rules more than 100 times more often than the Toffees, but football has never been known for its lack of hypocrisy.
At least Everton should be able to continue to focus on the pitch when their case is eventually concluded and won’t have the potential punishment of a large points deduction hanging over their head for the next few years, as is the case of Man City.
In other Everton news, Simon Jordan has fired a jibe at Michael Keane, suggesting the Toffees will avoid relegation should he remain out of the side