‘Heavy’ Everton penalty ‘sets precedent’ ahead of Man City verdict as ex-Prem owner warns Pep’s side

Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has offered his take on Everton being deducted 10 points for breaching the Premier League’s financial rules.

It was confirmed on Friday that Everton have been deducted 10 points. This comes after they were found to have lost £124.5m over a three-year period up until the end of the 2021/22 season.

Premier League ruled state that clubs can lose a maximum of £105m over three years without being sanctioned and Everton were referred to an independent commission over their wrongdoing.

This deduction drops Everton to 19th in the Premier League table but they are expected to appeal the verdict.

Jordan reckons the Premier League are attempting to prove a point before the independent regulator comes in and Man City “will be looking at this with interest”.

It was confirmed earlier this year that Man City are alleged to have breached more than 100 of the Premier League’s financial rules but this case is yet to be concluded.

Jordan told talkSPORT: “I didn’t think they would get there. I thought they would get Three to six, and that may well be the outcome after an appeal.

“But the fact of the matter is the Premier League, they are a product of timing, despite the fact I think they have been slightly artistic in their accountancy. The Premier League’s attitude now that they have an independent regulator coming in, is that that want to show they can clean house, and cleaning house is forcing things like FFP and the disciplines behind it.

“I wonder if this would have been the same a few years ago, but 10 points is a significant penalty, and I’m not surprised they are appealing it. They will probably appeal it down, but they are not going to argue it away. The whole fabric of this is much different to that of Man City, because people will be asking.

“I thought there would be an element of the Premier League bottling this, because the next one is Man City, and once you set a precedent of points, then you have got that in your armoury and you are going to use it again. City will be looking at this with interest. But Everton’s is a lot more binary.”

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Jordan added: “If they [Everton] have got arguments, their accountants must be able to put up arguments. They must have been able to put these arguments up to file them through Companies House, because they’ve signed these accounts off.

“Auditors will have gone through and said, these adjustments have reasonable sustainability. So it becomes an argument of whose accountancy point of view is right.

“It does feel to me that, if that is the argument that it’s turned on, 10 points is a bloody heavy penalty.”