How the Everton dressing room reacted to independent commission referral before 10-point sanction

Conor Coady has revealed how the Everton dressing room initially reacted to the news that the club had been referred to an independent commission by the Premier League.

Following a five-day hearing last month, the Goodison Park club was docked ten points on Friday after being found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules.

Everton will formally lodge their appeal this week after claiming the punishment was a 'wholly disproportionate and unjust sporting sanction'. The appeal must be heard and concluded before the end of the season.

Coady spent last season on loan at Goodison Park after joining from Wolverhampton Wanderers before signing for Leicester City during the summer. And the England international has admitted he and his team-mates were intrigued to see what was going to come from the case.

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"It’s been going on for a while now,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. "When the stories were coming out last year, we were saying: 'I wonder what’s going to happen.'

“But you don’t really know the ins and outs of it as a player. You concentrate on your football, you concentrate on training, you concentrate on the manager.

“As a player, you try to just focus on what’s in front of you. There’s nothing really you can do with what goes on upstairs.

"The lads in the Everton dressing room will be the same now. They will looking at it, saying: 'We’ve had a good start to the season. Whatever’s happening above our heads is happening. We can’t really affect that.'

"People upstairs at Everton will try to sort things out, but from a player point of view, you try your best not