Everton: Kieran Maguire slams Premier League amid Goodison points deduction appeal saga
Kieran Maguire has slammed the Premier League for the way it has handled the Everton points deduction saga.
Speaking on The Price of Football podcast on Thursday (29 February), the football finance expert said the league has come out of the situation poorly after it – alongside the original commission – didn’t have any guidelines on how club’s should be punished for spending breaches.
After the Toffees’ 10-point deduction was reduced to six points by the new commission, which looked at the EFL’s guidelines on the matter, he added that the original penalty was “too harsh” given that it was about 20 per cent of the medium points total that Premier League’s clubs earn across a season.
“The second issue and, the Premier League has come out of this quite poorly, was along the lines of the original commission and the Premier League not having any guidelines,” said Maguire.
“If we look at legislation enacted by Parliament, what will happen is that a new law will be passed, a new offence will be created and then there will be an appropriate tariff agreed, and then the judges say ‘well, where are we on the tariff?’. The Premier League didn’t go that far, you could argue this was at the behest of the clubs themselves because they’ve had the opportunity to set a tariff.
“Therefore, the second commison said ‘where do you get this 10 points from?’ and this is the question which we’ve been asking. Yes, Everton appear to have breached the rules, but the penalty seems disproportionate.
“The second commission looked to the EFL for guidance and it does effectively have a set tariff. They also looked at Birmingham’s deduction last year of nine points, that was for a 46-game competition, whereas the Premier League’s a 38-game competition.
“If you look at the medium points earned by Premier League clubs, it’s around about 48 to 50. 10 points is 20 per cent of your overall taking in a season, that does seem too harsh. From the basis of that, they said we’re going to reduce the penalty to six points.”
Premier League must get house in order after Everton saga
It’s pretty clear that the Premier League must get its own house in order and guidelines in place before it can charge any more clubs for breaching its spending rules.
There is no doubt that Everton did commit an offence and they have admitted their guilt, but there is nothing to substantiate why the 10-point deduction was handed out.
If the guidelines weren’t in place and the commission was just making up its own mind, why couldn’t it wait before a tariff was enacted? It could have saved months of torture for the fans, who were desperately waiting to hear what the appeal verdict would be.
They can now sleep a little easier given that the Toffees have got four points back on the board and a gap has been created between themselves and the relegation zone.
But with the second charge looming and yet more unknowns surrounding that situation, the Premier League must make sure the issue is handled correctly this time.
In other Everton news, Farhad Moshiri has been provided with a 777 Partners takeover solution amid the “appalling” Goodison situation.
For more Everton news, follow us on Facebook or join our brand new WhatsApp Channel for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone.