Jamie Carragher blasts ‘excessive and not right’ Everton punishment as Sky Sports pundit claims club are ‘being used’
Jamie Carragher has slammed the 10-point deduction handed down to Everton as “excessive & not right” as he pointed the finger at rival Premier League clubs.
The Sky Sports pundit reacted via Twitter on 17 November as the independent commission’s decision was announced, to claim that the Toffees are “being used” to show an independent football regulator isn’t needed.
And with Sean Dyche’s side sent down to 19th in the league, above Burnley on goal-difference, the ex-Liverpool defender said this “doesn’t feel right” when his former side and the rest of the clubs who tried to break away for the European Super League got away with “no sanction at all”.
Carragher wrote: “The 10 point deduction for Everton is excessive & not right, considering they have been working with the PL about this for the last couple of years.
“Would it have been better to be evasive & try & drag it out like other clubs?
“No doubt relegated clubs will have put big pressure on the PL to deal with Everton, but when you consider 6 clubs tried to leave the PL & there was no sanction at all it doesn’t feel right.
“Until other clubs are sanctioned Everton will feel they are being used to show there is no need for an independent regulator, and they are right.”
He then appeared live on Sky Sports to reiterate his stance and call the 10-point hit “an awful lot”.
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The Premier League have sought to have the book thrown and Everton and it looks like they have got what they wanted, pending an appeal and another, no-doubt drawn-out, process.
If the Toffees’ finances have breached the rules then that is one thing, and a punishment of some sort would be unavoidable, but one as heavy as this for a single breach feels like a statement.
And it is impossible to view this situation in isolation when so many other factors involved and arguably, although Everton’s recent relegation rivals may beg to differ, where the stakes are far greater.
The football authorities feel their power under threat from Westminster in the form of the planned independent regulator, with legislation announced in the King’s Speech earlier this month [Guardian, 7 November], and want to portray strength.
Such plans were born out of the failed European Super League debacle, from which Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal received a slap on the wrist in the form of a joint payment and a promise not to do it again, and yet the Toffees have worked alongside the league over their finances and been hit far harder.
As Carragher suggests, it also can’t go unnoticed that City, winner of five from the past six Premier League titles, have more than 100 times the outstanding charges hanging over them that Everton have just been punished for, and there is no end in sight there as they continue to hoover up trophies.
The treble-winners, as the Toffees did, deny any wrongdoing, but there have already been accusations that Everton have been used as a proxy by the Premier League in their grander fight with City and the latest development won’t do anything to change that view.
In other Everton news, a Premier League manager is desperate to sign a Goodison star in January before the feared summer rush to get him.