Everton points deduction: Michael Ball shares administration verdict after Premier League ruling
Former Everton player Michael Ball has suggested the club would have been better off entering administration after being docked 10 points by the Premier League.
The Toffees were last week found to have breached the competition's financial rules by an independent panel, leading to severe sanctions being passed down.
That is a record number of points deducted from a team in Premier League history, one more than the nine taken off Portsmouth for entering administration in 2009-10.
Writing in his Liverpool Echo column [20 November], ex-left-back Ball said: "I just can't understand why we have been docked 10 points for one breach.
"In the past, the Premier League, EFL and FA have all said the worst thing you can do is go into administration, given the knock-on effect it creates for a whole host of businesses and individuals.
"However, if you go into administration, you are only, as history shows, docked nine points. Which surely means that what we have done is worse than entering administration, and that doesn't make sense to me.
"To say this ruling is disappointing and frustrating would be an understatement, and we have every right to feel like we have been harshly judged and punished, especially when you consider it is Everton’s first offence."
Right choice
Ball is sharing the thoughts of every Evertonian with these comments. Being deducted points is one thing; to pretty much make an example out of the club is another.
An appeal is to follow, which could see the punishment lessened slightly, but the bottom line is that the initial punishment was the most brutal in the competition's history.
What makes it tougher to take is that Chelsea and Manchester City have yet to be tried, despite what appears to be - especially in the latter's case - more serious breaches.
Everton will no doubt be watching those cases very closely, although it may yet be many months - possibly years even, given how slow they are moving with it - before a conclusion is reached.
The Toffees ultimately did the right thing by not entering administration, but should they suffer relegation by a single point, let's come back and revaluate that view.