Everton: 'Desperate' Premier League make promise as second FFP hearing date nears

The Premier League has promised to announce the verdict to the next Everton hearing by 8 April, according to the Daily Mail.

Matt Hughes reported via the paper's website on 19 March that the Toffees second independent commission hearing is set to happen next week, after the decision on Nottingham Forest's four-point punishment was announced on Monday 18 March.

The commission panel is also set to work through the Easter weekend "in a desperate attempt to meet the Premier League's strict timetable".

The league is reportedly now "scrambling" to reduce the chances of a "nightmare scenario" where the season finishing with cases outstanding and the final standings unconfirmed.

A final backstop date had already been set as 24 May but the Premier League is said to be "desperate" to conclude both Everton and Forest's cases prior to the final games on 19 May, with an appeal in the latter having to wait for the Toffees' hearing to conclude due to "significant overlap" between the two situations.

Premier League scrambles to speed up Everton and Nottingham Forest cases

It is quite clearly not a desirable outcome for anyone if the Premier League finishes and multiple clubs at the bottom don't know if they are safe or down.

But it is frankly a farce that the authorities changed the rules to prevent hearings from dragging on into the following campaign, and in the process caused Everton to face multiple punishments in the same season, only to still be desperately trying to avoid another negative situation under their new timeframe.

Given this is the second go round for the Toffees in a matter of months it logically should be a quicker process since much of the ground has already been gone over, with two of the three years in question at the upcoming hearing already covered in the previous one.

There is some hope that a points deduction can be avoided entirely this time, which would perhaps negate the need for an appeal and shorten the timeframe significantly.

The top flight clubs obviously bear some responsibility for the mess that the PSR rules have become as they voted them in originally, but Everton have very much been on the receiving end of the situation for some months now.

And with the spending rules now set to change anyway that seems to be a clear admission that the current set up isn't working.

If the Toffees can get through the second charge without a punishment that condemns them to major relegation danger then the hope would be that they are able to stop operating under a cloud of potential sanctions under the new system, where they are forecast to be compliant.

In other Everton news, club sources have indicated their latest expectations for the 777 Partners takeover deal.

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.