'Legal errors' - document reveals why Everton points deduction was reduced as new stadium case vindicated

Everton have been successful in having their Premier League points deduction reduced. 

The Toffees were docked 10 points in November for a breach of profit and sustainability rules in the 2021-22 season. But an appeal board has decided that the punishment was too harsh and it has been bumped down to six.

It means Everton move up to 15th in the Premier League table and five points above the relegation zone. 

A Premier League statement said: "An independent Appeal Board has concluded that the sanction for Everton FC’s breach of the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSRs), for the period ending Season 2021/22, will be an immediate six-point deduction. This follows the club’s appeal of an independent Commission’s decision in November 2023 to impose a 10-point deduction for the club’s breach of the PSRs. "The appeal was heard over three days earlier this month, by an Appeal Board comprising Sir Gary Hickinbottom (Chair), Daniel Alexander KC and Katherine Apps KC."

The Premier League have released a document from the outcome of Everton's appeal board hearing. It details that the Toffees' case relied on nine grounds - and two of them were upheld.

The first was in relation to interest payments from the construction of the club's new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. The independent commission said Everton had been 'less than frank' with calculations of relative losses - but those finds were 'wrong'.

It was also considered there were no benchmarks set out by the Premier League for a breach of rules, unlike the EFL. 

The findings said: "The Club relies on nine grounds of appeal. Seven relate mainly to how the Commission dealt with various mitigating and aggravating factors. The Appeal Board refuses the appeal on all these grounds, concluding that the Commission’s approach to these issues was correct and the evidence supported its conclusions. However, on the other two grounds, the Appeal Board concludes that the Commission made legal errors. "First, the Commission found that, in relation to what it told the Premier League about its new stadium debt (which affected the calculation on which the relevant losses were calculated), the Club had been “less than frank” and breached another Premier League Rule (rule B.15) which imposes an obligation of “utmost good faith”.

"The Appeal Board concludes that the Commission was wrong to make those findings, because those allegations had not been made against the Club. Whilst the representations made by the Club about the stadium debt were materially wrong, it was not the Premier League’s case that that was anything other than an innocent mistake. Second, the Commission was wrong not to take into account available benchmarks (e.g. the approach taken in English Football League (“EFL”) Guidelines cases), which had been relied upon by the Club, when it addressed the proportionality of the sanction."