The striker-turned-pundit criticised the handling of the case against Everton as he discussed its implications with Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville
Premier League officials will be “dancing,” according to Ian Wright, because the profit and sustainability case against Everton was handled so shoddily by Manchester City’s legal team.
The former striker for Arsenal who is now a pundit called the “legal errors” committed by the panel that cost Everton 10 points “ridiculous.” On Monday, an appeals committee determined that the errors were so serious that the punishment was dropped to six points.
Wright felt that Everton’s reprieve brought attention to issues with the way the case was handled, issues that he thinks Manchester City will take advantage of when the team defends itself against over a hundred charges from the Premier League.
Since Everton was docked 10 points in November, the Premier League’s case as well as the structure of the independent panel that heard it, have come under intense criticism. Concerns about transparency and fairness have been raised by politicians, pundits, and supporters who have criticised the Blues for breaking sustainability and profit regulations.
These concerns were brought back to light when the panel considering Everton’s appeal discovered errors in the decision-making process in the initial case. The three-person panel disagreed with Everton’s allegations that it handled some arguments dishonestly and found the 10-point penalty to be unfair.
According to Wright, the assessment revealed weaknesses in the Premier League’s policies and procedures that will help Manchester City refute accusations made against the team. “Remember the Premier League made a mistake on two of the charges [the case was heard by a panel independent of the Premier League, but enforcing the league’s rules],” he stated in an interview with Stick to Football, a podcast connected to Sky Bet. What would Manchester City’s lawyers do to individuals like this if you have employees performing that task, and they have nine tasks to review or whatever, and they make mistakes that force them to return points? They will be dancing with them!
“How they can get that wrong is absurd. Personally, I believe that they ought to have carried out their current course of action, which is to say, “Okay, we are fining you, you are going to get 10 points.” Afterward, they [Everton] should have said, “Okay, we are going to appeal.” Allow them to do so, and we’ll determine what happens after the appeal before you make the decision. How will you accomplish it beforehand? since you now find yourself in this awkward circumstance.
Jamie Carragher stated on the same programme that the lighter penalty for Everton “feels about right.” “Hang on, the Premier League are the judge and jury here,” he continued, expressing frustration on the part of the supporters. “The Premier League are prosecuting them, then it’s going to the Independent Commission.” That was their frustration; they believed that, in order to arrive at the ten points [deduction], they had conspired with the Independent Commission. Since this is the first time a team has ever been fined for something similar, nobody really knows what the appropriate penalty should be.
Carragher emphasised the strategy of not developing a penalty structure in the hopes that ambiguity would serve as a disincentive for breaking the rules. However, he also considered the claims against Everton and Nottingham Forest that would still need to be resolved this season, now that a precedent had been formed. He claimed to have seen the 61-page appeals committee verdict that lessened Everton’s original punishment. Based on his reading of the ruling, he predicts that Nottingham Forest will receive six points and the Blues would lose another “one or two” points.
Such a scenario is still conceivable and would further destabilise the Premier League’s lower half. The appeals panel reiterated its opinion that teams which violate Premier League spending regulations should be punished with a points penalty. Given that the two cases overlap, he thinks Everton will be able to use double jeopardy as a major mitigating factor. “The Nottingham Forest situation is from this season, while Everton’s sanction is from last season,” Carragher stated. The issue with Everton, though, is that the current punishment comprises two [years from the prior two], making it a three-year period.
They are arguing that since two of the charges are included in the three years of punishment already, we cannot be punished an additional six points after the first two years of punishment. I predict Nottingham Forest will likely win six [points], while Everton will likely receive one or two.
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