Everton’s successful appeal against their first Premier League points deduction is being cited as a useful guide to the legal test Manchester City could face when challenging the independent commission’s findings against them.
Sports lawyer Alex Goodchild, of Bray & Krais, told The Athletic that previous appeal-board decisions involving Everton and Nottingham Forest help illustrate how difficult it can be to overturn findings and conclusions of fact.
Everton appeal offers guide to City challenge
Everton were initially deducted 10 points in November 2023 after admitting a breach of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules.
The club appealed against the sanction rather than the fact of the breach. Two of Everton’s nine grounds of appeal were upheld and the deduction was reduced to six points in February 2024.
Speaking to The Athletic, Goodchild explained that appeal boards are generally reluctant to overturn factual conclusions because the original commission had the advantage of hearing and assessing witness evidence first-hand.
There is greater scope for intervention where a commission has made a material error of law which may have affected its eventual decision, or where the process was procedurally unfair.
Goodchild pointed specifically to Everton’s case, where the Appeal Board identified potential errors of law as including taking account of something that shouldn’t legally have been considered, or failing to consider something that should have been.
Everton’s PSR case is very different from the much broader proceedings involving City, but its appeal decision is now helping lawyers explain the test City’s challenge could face.
City have said their appeal will argue that the commission made material errors of law, principle and fact.
More than two years after Everton successfully reduced their original points deduction, the reasoning behind that decision has therefore acquired fresh relevance.
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