Everton’s successful appeal in February 2024, which cut their points deduction from 10 to six, is the one recent precedent any Premier League club has set for challenging a Profitability and Sustainability sanction.
Manchester City have until Friday, 2 October to lodge their own appeal against guilty findings on 114 of 115 financial charges. The club’s post-verdict statement set out the line of attack the appeal would press: in the club’s own words, “material errors of law, principle and fact”.
How Everton clawed back four points
Both of the Everton grounds that succeeded concerned how the first commission had reasoned, not the underlying breach, which the club had admitted. The Appeal Board overturned the finding that Everton had failed to act in “utmost good faith” over the funding of the Bramley-Moore Dock stadium, a reversal the club called “an incredibly important point of principle”.
The Appeal Board also ruled the commission had failed to weigh the sanction against the right benchmarks, including the English Football League’s own rules and the Premier League’s nine-point deduction for insolvency. On that reasoning, the 10-point sanction was found “inappropriate when assessed against the available benchmarks”. The deduction fell to six.
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City’s uphill climb
City were found guilty on 114 of 115 charges covering nine seasons between 2009-10 and 2017-18. The only not-guilty verdict relates to cooperation with the investigation. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters called the ruling “the most significant in Premier League history”.
Chief executive Ferran Soriano rejected the ruling in a message to staff, calling the case a “single false accusation” built around the claim that the owner’s personal money had been routed secretly through sponsors in Abu Dhabi.
The appeal will be heard by a new three-person independent commission under section W of the Premier League rulebook. The club cannot escalate the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Judicial review in the High Court on procedural grounds is the only avenue left if the Premier League process is exhausted.
Where the parallel breaks
Everton admitted the single breach they were charged with. City contest almost everything. The commission found City had used “sham” commercial contracts to disguise more than £900m ($1.2bn) of funding routed from Abu Dhabi, a factual edifice much wider than Everton’s single accounting dispute and far harder to unpick on appeal.
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Manchester City are top of the Premier League with five wins from five and 15 points. The commission has yet to schedule the separate hearing that will decide whether the club are fined, docked points or expelled from the league.
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