Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images
Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images
Andy Burnham referenced Everton today, as he expressed concerns about ‘losing’ Manchester City’s owners.
City have been found guilty of the majority of the 115 charges they faced, by an independent commission and are now in very hot water.
City continue to deny any wrongdoing, and their former manager Pep Guardiola has today come out in support of the club and its position, following communications by both Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Ferran Soriano.
They’ll be appealing the verdict, but in the meantime, everybody is discussing what kind of punishment would be suitable for a situation this serious.
Of course, Everton received a points deduction of eight points (six and two) previously from the Premier League for minor financial breaches, and plenty want to see that sanction potentially inform City’s punishment.
Today, UK Prime Minister and big Everton fan Andy Burnham referenced that as he spoke about City’s owners.
What Andy Burnham said about Everton and Man City’s owners after their charges verdict
The story continues to dominate headlines, and today Burnham spoke again about the situation, having first done so on the day the news about the verdict leaked last Friday.
Burnham has taken an interesting stance.
He has actually suggested he would be ‘concerned to lose them, given their investments into the city of Manchester. He said (via BBC News): “I would be really concerned to lose them.
“They’ve been such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester and obviously the building of Manchester City into the global force that it is.”
Burnham was actually speaking from the Hill Dickinson Stadium, and the PM mentioned Everton’s previous points deduction.
Drawing parallels between the two situations, he said: “Everton was in this position a few years ago and you might remember that I fought for Everton in that situation because I still hold the view very firmly that they weren’t fairly treated in that process. I remember people proclaiming Everton guilty at the time and with hindsight I think more people would say that wasn’t fair, the way that was handled.
“So it would be wrong of me to leap to one side given the experience that I’d had before becoming Prime Minister. It is frustrating when people rush to judgment.”
Burnham statement unlikely to go down well
Of course, City are entitled to appeal the verdict and that is going to delay this process even further.
Evertonians are unlikely to show the same kind of sympathy as Burnham here, because the Toffees’ punishment was very swift and harsh, with many still feeling today that it was a disproportionate punishment for a minor overspend.
Team (Top 10) Compensation estimate if Man City were removed from merit payment table
Everton £28,994,186
Man United £28,118,305
West Ham £28,089,124
Crystal Palace £27,333,243
Newcastle £26,902,577
Chelsea £25,787,679
Tottenham £25,540,172
Liverpool £24,423,357
Aston Villa £23,052,791
Brighton £21,769, 248
The Premier League have said City ‘arranged sham contracts (which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties) with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on sham agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club’s revenues and reduce its costs’. This allowed City to bypass FFP regulations, vastly outspend rivals and build a team that dominated for years.
And Everton potentially suffered as a result of this. Indeed, hypothetically removing City from the merits table for the period that’s been investigated would mean Everton would be top due to having the biggest difference.