What Everton’s FFP verdict means for relegation, second charge and 777 takeover.

Everton said they feel ‘vindicated’ by the decision to lessen the punishment, even if it isn’t the full triumph their legal team sought.

Everton have had their 10-point penalty for breaching the Premier League’s financial fair play rules reduced to six in news that has sent another shockwave through the relegation battle.

So, why has Everton’s 10-point penalty been reduced?
Everton stated they were “vindicated” by a new commission’s decision to cut their 10-point punishment to six, and it clearly constitutes a partial triumph for the club, even if it is not the comprehensive win the Toffees’ legal staff would have hoped for. Given that they admitted the breach, regaining four points is likely to be near the top of their expectations.

Everton’s initial anger was both with the independent commission that docked them 10 points and the Premier League, who had originally lobbied for a 12 point tariff for the club overspending the allowable £105m rolling losses over a three-year period by £19.5m.

They said it was a “wholly disproportionate and unjust” sentence, and a new committee comprised of Sir Gary Hickinbottom (chairman), Daniel Alexander KC, and Katherine Apps KC, which met for three days on January 31, largely supported that decision.

While they dismissed seven of Everton’s nine mitigating arguments, they discovered that the original commission had made two “legal errors” that influenced the decision. Those two errors were determining that the club had not acted in “utmost good faith” regarding the new stadium debt they had incurred, as well as failing to consider benchmarks established by prior similar instances, including those presided over by the English Football League.

They did, however, concur with the initial panel that the primary reason for punishing Everton was that the club did not manage its resources as sensibly as it should have, noting the “generous” threshold of £105 million.

They went on to say, “That decision, combined with the reduction in the points deduction, was an extremely important point of principle for the club on appeal. As a result, the club feels vindicated in pursuing their appeal.

This case also highlights the Premier League’s transition to the “super silk” era. Everton had hired Laurence Rabinowitz KC, widely regarded as one of the best in the business, at a significant cost to strengthen their legal team, and his success in reducing the points penalty will both enhance his reputation in the sporting world and encourage others in a similar situation to go out and hire the best and most expensive lawyers.

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