Everton: Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher clash with fans over Nottingham Forest FFP breach
Gary Neville was furious with a Nottingham Forest fan after he defended his club and Everton for breaching FFP rules and receiving points deductions.
Forest were given a four-point deduction while the Toffees saw their 10-point deduction reduced to six on appeal, while they face a second charge next month and a decision on their takeover.
Neville and Jamie Carragher were hosting an episode of The Overlap: Fan Debate (28 March) when the discussion emerged, and the Manchester United legend admitted he didn’t understand how the breaches occurred as the clubs should be aware.
“We’ve known about Everton’s madness,” he said. “You’ve [Carragher] been calling them the country’s worst owners. When Forest signed 34 players that summer, we knew. It didn’t feel right. Chelsea. You know the clubs that are making a bit of a mess of it.”
Carragher then asked what the introduction of an independent regulator could do in this specific situation, and Neville admitted he wasn’t sure but was furious when the Nottingham Forest representative admitted that he felt breaking the rules was worth it as they avoided relegation.
“I’m not quite sure what it [independent regulator] could do today,” he said. “There is a lack of faith and trust in some clubs in the Premier League in terms of how they’re handling these systems.
“I think generally a regulator, the Premier League are trying to do it themselves, is change the rules around sustainability. So you can measure it in real time.
“I’ve got some sympathy with the Premier League because they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t on this.
“Look across here to Luton Town. They worked within the financial parameters of the league’s framework, you [Nottingham Forest] don’t, whilst you benefit from having extra players.
“That’s where we’ve got to, where we’re at the point where clubs feel they’re bigger than the league. Don’t support the clubs breaking the rules, blame your owners. It’s simple accounting.”
FFP is a silly concept for Premier League in current version
FFP was initially brought in to football to stop situations like Portsmouth, Reading, Bury and Derby from taking place and to protect teams.
But what’s actually happened is that it has protected the top clubs’ position at the top of the game, and restricted ambitious teams in their chase to close that gap and push on to better themselves.
In this situation it’s different because both of these teams are fighting at the bottom of the league, but they’re still being punished on the pitch for poor business decisions made off it.
Points deductions don’t make sense and what the Forest fan was saying about weighing up the loss of points to the loss of ambition or results would see most fans prefer to take the hit in order to still have a chance of competing.
The whole thing needs to change but Neville is right, the rules are in place for one reason or another and while they are then it’s only the owners and those upstairs who should be blamed for a club failing to adhere to it.
In other Everton news, this big-money ace is expected to be axed in the predicted XI to face Bournemouth.
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