BREAKING NEWS :What Leicester verdict said exposed ridiculous PSR reality – and proved Everton supporters right

Everton were the fall boys on the day Leicester City lifted the Premier League trophy, but the beleaguered Blues could be forgiven for not feeling the footballing romance this time around as the Foxes avoided a 5,000/1 triumph. probably made a bigger shock than their triumph, the deduction of points for violations of the PSR – rules. Back in 2015/16, Claudio Ranieri’s men were valiant underdogs who stunned ‘The Sky Six’ to become the first recent English football champions since fellow East Midlanders Nottingham Forest in 1978.

This correspondent was privileged to be at the King Power Stadium for the ECHO’s launch day coverage to witness history when Jamie Vardy and friends had a party and their ‘Tinkerman’ gaffle brought Italy’s Andrea Bocelli to wow the crowds by performing Nessuna dorma (for the record, Everton were beaten 3-1, but the deficit could have been double what turned out to be Roberto Martinez’s penultimate game in charge before he was sacked after Sam Allardyce’s Sunderland strike from 3 -0 four days later ).

But while ‘little’ Leicester gave the big boys a bit of a bloody nose with their fabulous success some eight years ago, the only winners of this victory off the pitch are the lawyers, as the controversial ruling represents anything but a level playing field promotion. An independent panel found that the Premier League had no jurisdiction to punish the club as they were relegated to the Championship when their account period ended on 30 June 2023.

The Premier League said it was “surprised and disappointed” by the commission’s decision. Leicester said they are “simply trying to make sure the rules are applied based on how they are actually written.”

No one disputes the huge losses Leicester suffered here. They did this to exploit a large loophole and avoid technicalities such as Abdoulaye Doucoure’s goal against Bournemouth at Goodison Park a month before reporting – the club extended their accounting period to 13 months to align it with the rest of their business. – has ensured that, unlike Everton and Nottingham Forest, who were suspended last season for PSR offences, – they are relegated and, having surrendered their Premier League shares after relegation, cannot therefore be bound by top-flight rules.

Leicester broke. They went far more than Everton, who ended up with eight points last season, and Nottingham Forest, who got four.

Given the penalties received by Everton and Forest, Leicester should in theory go into the game expecting to take away somewhere between six and nine points. But either by design or luck, the move to a 13-month billing period has now spared them.

Under PSR rules, clubs cannot lose more than £105 million over a three-season period. So, basically, Leicester were in a position where they were destined to breach all but the last of those 156 weeks, having fallen outside the Premier League’s remit when they filed their shares earlier this month.

There were no attempts to sell players in extra time and Leicester avoided penalties with only the sharpest of techniques. This shock decision also highlights the lottery element of these independent commissions set up by the Premier League’s Independent Refereeing Committee.

If Everton had gone with the three people who handled Leicester’s appeal (Sir Stanley Burnton, Sir Maurice Kay and Robert Glancy KC) would they have ended up with fewer points?

Would you see what they described as the flaws in the Premier League’s PSR rules? The latter panel said the PSR rules were “far from being well designed in relevant parts.”

There’s a pretty wide range of interpretations of what we’ve seen so far. Everton embarked on what proved to be their most difficult task yet – the Premier League equivalent of ‘hanging the referee’ – as their original 10-point deduction last November was the heaviest sporting sanction in the 135 years of the English top flight. football.

That original verdict was reduced to six in February, with the Appeals Chamber concluding that the first panel “misapplied the law” on two grounds. Everton now face three different allocations, Nottingham Forest two, with Leicester appearing to receive the most lenient fee with this appeal.

Everything that Everton and their fans have said about the Premier League rules being unfit for purpose, only for their opponents to try to put them back in their box, hasn’t that all become reality with this ruling?

Shouldn’t the Evertons now feel vindicated with their accusations of the Premier League that: “You don’t know what you’re doing” and Andy Burnham’s claim that they made up the rules on the fly? Everything the Blues and their fans say when their club has been hit hard seems to hit home.

At the time, Everton were told to respect the process and said they would not appeal. However, to repeat the phrase I used to describe Mark Clattenburg, who criticized the match officials at Goodison Park last season while employed as Nottingham Forest’s referee lobbyist, Leicester showed more brass than C-3PO.

They threatened to sue Everton for PSR breaches for a few years, and it wasn’t until they were relegated and had their billing period postponed that they backed out along with other clubs, aware that the same fate could befall them. a lot. quickly.