Everton: £580m Goodison claim emerges amid latest Premier League twist – ‘Apocalypse avoidance’
Journalist Daniel Storey has defended the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) in comparison with the recently mooted “luxury tax” despite points deductions for Everton and Nottingham Forest.
Forest have suffered a four-point sanction – which they are appealing – while the Toffees have been docked six points after an appeal of their own, but still face the prospect of a second deduction.
Storey – Chief Football Writer at The i – however, took to social media to suggest that PSR, while imperfect, does offer clubs some protection and keeps the gap to the elite in check better than the proposed “luxury tax” [Daily Mail], which favours financial rather than sporting sanctions for overspending.
Storey wrote on his personal X account: “I know it’s fashionable to hate on PSR, but I don’t see how anyone can look at Everton’s situation, owing [circa] £580m to external creditors, and think: ‘What we really need is to let them spend more money’.
“PSR is being missold as an unfair limit on signing players, but the clubs who have broken regulations have signed loads. PSR is also a system of apocalypse avoidance that stops big clubs dying if owners load them with debt and then decide to walk away.
“Getting rid of it favour of financial penalties won’t eradicate the ringfenced elite, it will exacerbate it. The biggest clubs will spend more and more and the rest will have two choices: 1) lose more money every year or 2) allow the gap to that elite to grow even further.
“I think that there can be improvements, not least a leeway year for clubs coming up without parachute payments. But we are trying to ensure that football clubs are still here in 20 years’ time, long after any owner may have left.”
A potential second points deduction for Everton would put the Toffees in real danger of relegation
Everton find themselves sailing close to the wind after just one points deduction – but a second would leave them in serious danger of relegation.
The Toffees’ six-point sanction has left them 16th, two places and only four points clear of the drop zone – though they do have a game in hand on the three teams below them.
However, it remains likely that their next penalty could drop Everton below Luton Town and into the bottom three – vastly increasing the importance of Sean Dyche’s side’s results between now and the end of the season.
The Toffees’ present form – a club-record 13-game winless Premier League run – does not offer much hope in that regard. The identity of their upcoming opponents, however, does.
Tricky clashes with Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal aside, Everton have the opportunity to face – and take points off – 19th-placed Burnley, 17th-placed Forest, 15th-placed Brentford, 18th-placed Luton and bottom-of-the-league Sheffield United. Furthermore, four of those five clashes with their relegation rivals are at Goodison Park.
A strong end to the season could well be enough to save Everton – even if they are docked more points.
In other Everton news, a journalist has cast doubt over Dyche’s future at Goodison Park.
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