Everton's points deduction Q&A: Why has the sanction been reduced?

Everton have risen to 15th in the Premier League after their 10-point deduction was reduced to six.

The four points returned to the Toffees has seen the club climb above Nottingham Forest and Brentford in the Premier League table.

Everton had initially been docked 10 points for breaking spending rules in a period ending 2021-22, after out-spending the allowed £105million losses by £19.5m.

The Premier League’s appeals board reduced the sanction, but the Toffees and Nottingham Forest are both facing a charge of breaching Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules.

Mail Sport's Lewis Steele answers the key questions after Everton's points deduction was reduced.

Firstly, and worryingly for the Premier League’s integrity, the appeals board found the original commission made two ‘legal errors’, including accusing Everton of not acting in ‘utmost good faith’ and being ‘less than frank over debts’.

While the findings rejected seven of nine grounds of appeal, the three-man panel agreed with two and said the original punishment should have taken into account previous cases — including many in the EFL such as Sheffield Wednesday — when choosing the severity of the sanction.

Everton’s legal team, led by ‘super silk’ Laurence Rabinowitz also made several sound arguments over the ‘disproportionate’ nature of the sanction and the appeals board took this into account.

Everton argued that the original 10-point deduction was a ‘wholly disproportionate and unjust’ punishment and asked the appeals board to take into account their mitigating circumstances.

One of those was that their £124.5m loss (£19.5m more than the permitted £105m over a three-year period) was partly down to rising stadium costs in building Bramley-Moore Dock