Everton supporters could be forgiven for looking at the latest developments in Manchester City’s Premier League case and thinking back to 2023-24.
Of course they will, in fact.
Everton were deducted points twice that season for breaches of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules. Nottingham Forest were punished too, establishing points deductions as one of the competition’s responses to financial rule-breaking.
Reports on Friday claimed an independent tribunal had found the vast majority of the charges against Manchester City proven.
It is tempting to use Everton’s punishments as the starting point for working out what could happen to City. The comparison, though, only goes so far.
Everton’s PSR deductions remain relevant
Everton initially received a 10-point deduction in November 2023 after being found to have exceeded the Premier League’s permitted PSR losses by £19.5m.
That punishment was reduced to six points on appeal. A second PSR case later resulted in another two-point deduction. Nottingham Forest were deducted four points for their own PSR breach during the same season.
Those cases are relevant because they demonstrated that breaches of financial rules can carry sporting sanctions rather than simply financial penalties. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has pointed towards Everton and Forest when discussing what could eventually follow in City’s case.
“There is no doubt a points deduction would be the most likely outcome in the view of many. We have seen them before for Nottingham Forest and Everton for breaches of the financial limit rules. So that is feasible.”
Feasible does not mean automatic. Everton’s deductions don’t provide a formula that can simply be applied to Manchester City.
Why Manchester City’s case is different from Everton’s
Everton’s cases concerned breaches of the Premier League’s PSR loss limits. The allegations against City were much wider.
They included alleged failures to provide accurate financial information, issues concerning player and manager remuneration, alleged breaches of UEFA financial regulations and Premier League PSR rules, and charges relating to cooperation with the league’s investigation.
The Liverpool Echo’s report on the Manchester City case examines the possible consequences following Friday’s reports.
Sky Sports News reported that the process is moving towards the appeal stage, while City continue to deny wrongdoing.
A City spokesperson said on Friday that the Premier League process “remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality”.
No sanction has been publicly announced.
That means attempts to multiply Everton’s deductions according to the number of charges against City don’t work. The cases aren’t equivalent and there is no fixed sanctions grid under which a particular financial breach automatically results in a set number of points being deducted.
What Everton’s precedent actually tells us
Everton’s experience does establish that a points deduction is among the options available when financial rules are breached.
It doesn’t tell us how large any City deduction could be, whether one will ultimately be imposed or whether other sanctions could accompany it.
The commission has broad powers available to it. Those can include points deductions and financial penalties, although the eventual outcome will depend on the findings and the remaining stages of the process.
City’s case has also not reached its conclusion. Both sides have appeal rights and no detailed judgment or sanction has been made public.
That is very different from Everton’s position once the decisions in their PSR cases were published and points were removed from the league table.
Former City chairman says money would not be enough
Former Manchester City chairman David Bernstein has also responded to the reports.
Bernstein, who chaired City between 1998 and 2003 and later became chairman of the Football Association, told Times Radio that he did not believe a financial penalty alone would reflect the seriousness of the reported findings.
“Money is not sufficient.”
Bernstein also spoke about his reaction as a long-standing City supporter.
“I felt absolutely awful, I felt in shock yesterday, actually. I think you’ve asked me on the programme because of my time as chair of City and the FA, but basically, I’m a fan of Manchester City and have been a fan for 70 years.
“But to see all this tarnished in this way is very sad, I feel particularly bad for the wonderful supporters of the club who’ve stayed with the club through thick and thin.”
His comments add another voice to the debate over what might eventually constitute an appropriate sanction, but the answer remains with the disciplinary process rather than former officials or outside observers.
Everton’s deductions aren’t a tariff for Man City
Evertonians have good reason to take an interest in what happens next. The club spent much of the 2023-24 season adjusting to points deductions while fighting to preserve its Premier League status. The first punishment was unprecedented in its severity at the time and was eventually reduced on appeal.
Everton and Nottingham Forest subsequently became the obvious reference points whenever the possibility of a Premier League points deduction for financial breaches was discussed.
That doesn’t make their cases directly comparable with City’s… sadly.
Everton’s experience shows that points can be taken away for financial rule breaches. It doesn’t establish how many points another club should lose when the nature and scale of the case are different.
No City sanction has yet been made public, and the process remains ongoing.
For Everton, the precedent is therefore narrower than it might first appear: their PSR cases help show what kind of punishment is possible, not the size of any punishment Manchester City might eventually receive.
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