SIMON JORDAN: Why the EPL can't win when it comes to Man City's 115 charges

Everton's successful appeal to reduce their ten-point penalty has led to inevitable and somewhat feeble-minded criticism of both the Premier League and its chief executive Richard Masters.

Now I’m no great admirer of what I consider to be the middle management of the Premier League and I remain unconvinced by Masters. His background is in the Football League when it was comprised of lightweight thinkers and low-level achievers and I don’t see him as a strong leader.

So I’m no cheerleader for Masters, but I do accept he has presided over a difficult period. His predecessor Richard Scudamore was a master politician, balancing all those egos in the room and keeping everyone happy. So much so, that he exited stage left with a £5million golden thank you from the clubs. He repeatedly delivered better broadcast deals and endlessly kept feeding the ravenous beast, but he left a ticking time bomb when he broke away from collective distribution of TV money from overseas rights which saw the top six handed even more cash. Scudamore signed that off and Masters has had to deal with it.

He must believe his ascension to the Premier League’s top role coincided with running over a black cat because that is just one of the very different challenges he has faced compared to Scudamore. From the types of owners and proper enforcement of Financial Fair Play regulations to the Covid shutdown. From the sanctioning of Roman Abramovich and the enforced sale of Chelsea to the allegations against Manchester City. Then there’s the impending introduction of the independent regulator with its primary function to grab a significantly greater slice of TV revenues for the Football League from his member clubs. Scudamore managed to avoid all that by timing