Everton fans react to the club’s 10-point deduction for breaching Premier League’s financial rules, announced on Friday afternoon.
The Toffees were handed the heaviest points punishment in Premier League history; with the club “shocked and disappointed” by the ruling and are due to appeal.
Everton are now in the relegation zone, with reports claiming the charge related to interest payments on the cost of building the club’s new stadium.
“It feels like the fans are getting punished” 😞
Everton fans react to the club’s 10-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s financial rules…pic.twitter.com/yR7QSm9Fpu
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 17, 2023
Fan 1: “I think it’s excessive. I feel like the fans are really getting punished. I feel like, you know, if the sporting fine we’ve been issued with a sporting sanction, you know, off the field the finances haven’t been great. You know, Everton are guilty, they’ve been found guilty and they should be rightfully punished. However, this is an off the field matter. It’s a punishment that’s been given to the mis-management. Off the field it feels like all the fans are getting punished due to the sporting of the implications. Now, ten points deduction, it’s really down and it’s hard to take as a fan.”
Fan 2: “Well, there’s an appeal and if appeal succeeds, I don’t think it’ll be a problem for this club at all in terms of where we’ll end up. If we hit some bad form, then yeah, it could be disastrous, it could potentially be disastrous, but I don’t think it will be and I think the fans will be… This will make us even more determined to get behind the club, if anything.”
Fan 3: “A lot of fans at every club always believe that the Premier League are against their club and that’s no different with Everton. We all feel the same. We feel like we’re hard done, we feel like we’re a bit of an unlucky club and so forth. But Everton now got to batten down the hatches and unite as one. And they will, they always do. And it’s an old cliche and it’s very, I suppose, corny and cheesy, but they will. We’ve been in difficult positions before and we’re in a difficult spot again. Ultimately, when you look at the facts, you’re one win away from being outside the relegation zone. Everton in reality are better than the bottom three, there’s no doubt like that. So Everton should quite quickly find themselves if they continue on this upward trajectory that they’ve currently been on out of the relegation zone. But this is going to rumble on.”
Meanwhile, Jamie Carragher labels the punishment “excessive”, but even though this put the club into the drop zone, two points adrift of safety, the ex-footballer turned pundit is “certain” they will avoid relegation.
“It feels very excessive and I do feel for Everton.”
Jamie Carragher believes the 10 point deduction to the Toffees is a harsh punishment. pic.twitter.com/b7HkoUeRAH
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 17, 2023
“I think it’s excessive,” Carragher told Sky Sports News. “We’re talking about £20m – it is a small figure when you think of the Premier League now and transfer fees.
“There’s talk about other clubs being upset that Everton were buying players that they shouldn’t have done.
“But they’ve have been working with the Premier League over the last couple of years and I don’t understand why, over the last few transfer windows, the league didn’t say to Everton that they couldn’t bring in a certain player they wanted to?
“It just feels to me, to take points off clubs is really tough. That punishment has to be the last resort. You can have a transfer embargo, a fine, especially for a club like Everton right now, where they have spent over £20m.
“It feels excessive and I feel for Everton, especially what is going on with other clubs. There were certain Big Six clubs with what happened with the European Super League where they threatened to leave the league, with a £22m fine spread between the six clubs.
“So when you think of that and compare it to Everton being done with a 10-point deduction – it puts them almost at the bottom of the league, I think it’s excessive.
“I don’t think Everton are saying they haven’t gone above the threshold. They admit that.
“There’s no doubt that they have broken the rules and when you do that, you should be punished. But taking 10 points off a team is a lot. I think it feels excessive. This is unprecedented, we have never seen this level of sanction before.
“Maybe Everton will feel they’re getting punished, they will feel they are the ones getting used at this moment. There’s a lot of talk about an independent regulator coming into English football so I can understand this feeling.
“Of course, it will hurt the fans, but it will galvanise them. They will feel the world it against them.
“It won’t make Manchester United’s job any easier when they go to Goodison Park next Sunday.
“If truth be told, if you were ever going to get a points deduction at any point in the Premier League era, it would probably be this one.
“I know Everton are fighting against this, but they will be in the Premier League next season even with this points deduction. I’m pretty certain of that.
“I think Everton will be fine. We all agree there are three teams who have struggled in the Premier League, you feel for them as they have come up from the Championship.
“You talk about the battle for 40 points, if you get over 30 you have a great chance of staying up. That’s no disrespect to Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton, they’ve just found it really difficult for whatever reason.
“If you look at the size of the club of Everton, the team they have and the experience Sean Dyche has and the fact they have won five out of the last seven, they will go into these games in great form.
“Dyche has great experience at Burnley and with Everton last season. We’re seeing a different Everton, he’s stamping his authority. We’re seeing they’re getting the results they deserve from their home games at the start of the season.
“If they continue in the vein of form they’re in, they’ll be fine.
“I can totally get that clubs who have got relegated in the last couple of years are feeling aggrieved.
“There’s no doubt people have been looking at Everton’s finances, certainly the Premier League, who have been working together with them.
“I can totally understand their point that maybe Everton’s points deduction wasn’t taken into account while these things [their relegations] were going on and they were really affected.
“Everton would have gone down last season and the season before as well, so the clubs that did go down will feel aggrieved.
“There’s no doubt they will be putting pressure on the Premier League to sort this out.”
“This is the biggest sporting sanction ever handed down by the Premier League!”
Kaveh Solhekol on the reasons for Everton’s 10 point deduction over a financial fair play breach 🔵 pic.twitter.com/AqzMhGOi3y
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 17, 2023
In a statement, Everton expressed being “shocked and disappointed” by the sanction imposed by the commission and confirmed their intention to appeal against the punishment.
“They have a good case to get it reduced,” Carragher said.
“The things with the stadium, there was a rule change with the stadium with the interest.
“We know how the world is now financially and Everton are spending a lot of money to finish the stadium off which will be transformational for not just the club but the Premier League.
“Borrowing costs have gone through the roof. So they will feel hard done by, even though they have accepted them have crossed the line.”
When questioned about how much Moshiri is to blame for this, Carragher replied: “A huge amount. I’ve gone on record in the last couple of years saying how poorly run Everton have been.
“There has been a great divide in the last 12 to 18 months between the supporters and the owners and that’s why Moshiri is trying to get out of the club and will be selling it very shortly.
“This is a guy who has come in and wanted to get involved in football and he has put a lot of money into the club: the training ground, transfers and the stadium. Now he’s had enough and he’s trying to claw back some of the money he has invested.
“It won’t be just down to that man, but the people he’s employed: the managers, directors of football or CEOs, he hasn’t got those decisions right. That’s why Everton are where they are right now, the club has been run abysmally.”
There was plenty of comments after seeing Everton fans react to the club’s 10-point deduction for breaching Premier League’s financial rules…
@Owens_EFC: therell be a lot of rival fans made up n laughing that weve got this points deduction, should be very worried, the league have just set a very dangerous precedent
@blue_nose_amy:
Planning to breakaway from the league and destroy the football pyramid = pathetic fine
Going into administration = 9 point deduction
115 charge of FFP irregularities = apparently sod all
1 charge of FFP irregularity = 10 point deduction
Make it make sense FFS!!
@maxeh_1: Does make me laugh that this has been going on most years in the efl but now its a premier league club that gets it its the worst thing in the world and the poor poor fans are hard done by.
@JamesGibbo11: Couldn’t give two fucks. They were buzzing when the club spent stupid money year after year, now they face the consequences of their own actions 🤷🏼♂️
@JordanTompkinss: Nobody gave a fuck about us when we got -30, they’ll stay up anyway. #ltfc
@bw_jester_rfc: Wouldn’t wish what’s happening to us at #readingfc on another club. But given #Everton’s size and fanbase etc. IF they go down off the back of this, the cynic in me says the EFL and PL will suddenly do something for the good of the game for once. #regulatornow
@CharlieSanford1: I like how there’s only now an uproar because it’s a PL team. How many lower league teams have received a points deduction and there wasn’t this much discussion/reporting on it
@_emz_dj: Really feel for Everton. It’s very harsh but I think these guys are right, this will make the fans and the club even more determined to push on
@dankellylfc: How are the fans being punished? You can’t fine the club coz money obviously isn’t an issue when they’ve been in the red for years on the bounce now so what else can they do? The fans can still go the game so how have they been punished?
@DStansfield1999: Get fucked, break the rules pay the prices. Any sort of financial punishment just contradicts the whole thing.
@ianbbdesign: He’s right. The owners, directors and chairman should be punished… they are merely custodians on a club built by generations of fans…. It’s a tax on the poor and the rich get off Scot free!
@Tricky26032429: Why should they be treated any different to the likes of Wigan, Luton, Derby etc. Do the crime, do the time as they say.
@dpm_79: They should take the punishment, they will survive this season, should have been relegated last season.
@AdamTynemouth92: Clubs in the EFL receive point deductions for financial breaches or administration, why should a premier league team be any different
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