It was only very late in the day that Everton put their hands up indeed up to that point in time they had been economical with the truth when it came to interest on stadium loans and some of their mitigation claims were bound to be dismissed.I think Everton are looking to reduce the deduction for pleading guilty, saying 10 points are far too many, as it spells relegation for half of the teams in the PL.
I think they might get it reduced to six points, or two victories, with the 4 point difference being a big deal.
Without a clear penalties laid out beforehand, it could seem arbitrary and capricious.
Perhaps a schedule, for example, $0-25M shortfall being a 3 point penalty, $26-50M being 6 points, $51-75M being 9 points, etc… might have made the Everton penalty feel less shocking.
Like most if not all the rules surrounding FFP/PSR there are so many flaws and for me one of the craziest is the £105 million maximum.
To some clubs that equates to circa 25% of their turnover others like say city over a 3 year cycle it is less than 10%.
Everton were, despite what they would have you believe, afforded significant concessions they claimed the most in respect of any club when it came to COVID losses , won a significant dispensation when it came to pre planning expenditure, and kept signing players for fees despite the PL telling them that it was their responsibility to make sure that the managed their own finances.
The PL was assured by Everton officials that they would be under the £105 million and that would have been the case had the PL made yet further concessions and agreed that say £4 million of the transfer levy should be claimed as being youth expenditure ( no club has ever claimed that) that a player suspended for alleged sexual offence’s caused a loss and that players that they had planned to sell hadn’t moved on one ironically was awarded a squeaky new lucrative contract. Many of the claims for mitigation weren’t creative they were flawed.
They , Everton, then threw in Steel Costs had gone up , that they lost income as a consequence of the Russian invasion that may be a justified exception in 22/23 but certainly not in 21/22 and prior.
Do I believe that Everton should be deducted points ? No I don’t and of course the sanction list for breaking the limit should be in place prior to any charges and sporting sanction don’t just need to revolve around points . For instance transfer bans, squad limits etc would be far more balanced .
Having said all that if we didn’t have the nonsense that is FFP them their would be far more adherence to the rules and requirements without clever people constantly trying to find work arounds