Everton points deduction: Appeal board explain how they reached new figure

The appeal board’s decision to give Everton a six point deduction rather than the 10 handed out by the original independent commission last November has been outlined in their full written reasons.

Everton outlined their intentions to appeal on the same day that they were hit by what was the biggest sporting sanction in 135 years of English top flight football with the club’s interim chief executive Colin Chong describing it as: “disproportionate and wholly unjust.” Although seven of Everton’s nine grounds for appeal were dismissed, the decision that the club failed to act in utmost good faith has been overturned along with the scale of the punishment.

The reasons for why the appeal board came to their six-point deduction, a reduction of four from the original decision, are explained in the section of the report headlined ‘Is a points deduction reasonably required to achieve those aims (a sanction for a breach of profit and sustainability rules). Claims from Everton’s former chief executive Keith Wyness last month that “if the appeal is successful, there won’t be any deduction at all” proved to be over-optimistic.

Paragraph 201 states: “We have considered all available options, including a fine or some form of transfer ban, but we have no doubt that, leaving aside mitigating factors, any breach of rule E.51 (i.e. any PSR Calculation, showing losses of over £105million over the relevant period) warrants a points deduction, and nothing less than a points deduction. The unfair advantage achieved by a breach may include a financial advantage over other clubs, but it is mostly immediately a sporting advantage and consequently the sanction for breach can legitimately focus on a sporting disadvantage.”

Everton points deduction