Featured image credit: Everton
Everton and Nottingham Forest have acknowledged the Premier League’s decision to refer both clubs over a breach of the league’s profitability and sustainability rules.
The clubs are alleged to have sustained losses above the permitted thresholds for the assessment period ending with the 2022-23 season. The Premier League has confirmed that both cases have been referred to the chair of the judicial panel, who will appoint separate commissions to determine the appropriate sanctions.
Everton received a 10-point deduction earlier in the season for breaching financial rules, reportedly caused by interest payments for its new £500m (€581m/$632m) stadium (pictured). The penalty, imposed by a Premier League independent commission, marked the heaviest points deduction in the competition’s history. Everton launched an appeal against the “wholly disproportionate” sanction.
Yesterday’s (Monday’s) announcement by the Premier League puts Everton at risk of a further points deduction, with Forest potentially facing a similar sanction.
In a statement released yesterday, Everton said the latest referral covers the four seasons from 2019-20 to 2022-23, therefore including financial periods (2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22) for which the original 10-point sanction was given.
Everton’s statement added: “The Premier League does not have guidelines which prevent a club being sanctioned for alleged breaches in financial periods which have already been subject to punishment, unlike other governing bodies, including the EFL. As a result – and because of the Premier League’s new commitment to deal with such matters ‘in-season’ – the club is in a position where it has had no option but to submit a PSR (profit and sustainability rules) calculation which remains subject to change, pending the outcome of the appeal.
“The club must now defend another Premier League complaint which includes the very same financial periods for which it has already been sanctioned, before that appeal has even been heard. The club takes the view that this results from a clear deficiency in the Premier League’s rules.”
Forest released a shorter statement confirming that it acknowledges the Premier League’s decision. Forest said it intends to cooperate fully with the league and is confident of a “speedy and fair resolution”.
Clubs are able to lose £105m over a three-year period, but Forest’s losses are capped at £61m as the club spent two seasons in the Championship during the most recent cycle. Everton and Forest have 14 days to respond to their charges.
Everton announced last month that it will play its first competitive fixtures at its new stadium at the start of the 2025-26 season. The club stressed that the decision was not because of a construction delay, with the venue still scheduled to be completed in the final weeks of 2024.
In September, Farhad Moshiri agreed to sell his majority shareholding in Everton to US investment fund 777 Partners in a deal that secured the “complete financing” for the club’s new stadium. It was later reported by The Athletic that 777 Partners had provided the club with a loan worth “tens of millions” amid rising costs for the stadium project.
Although the nature of Everton’s alleged breach was not disclosed, reports suggested that the charge related to interest payments on the cost of building the stadium.
Forest, meanwhile, has long-held plans to expand its home stadium, the City Ground. In July 2022, the project, which will initially focus on rebuilding the Peter Taylor Stand, was given the green light by Rushcliffe Borough Council.
The project would bring the capacity of the stand up to 10,000, with Forest also planning on expanding the Bridgford Stand as part of a long-term goal to bring the City Ground’s capacity up to 38,000.
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