Goodison Park is always noisy; It’s just that sometimes this noise is roaring, sometimes booing. It’s safe to say that when Everton make their debut against Manchester United on Sunday, the mood will be fervently supportive. The annual putting aside of differences to stand behind the flag and fight relegation will happen early this season: there’s nothing better than a sense of a common enemy to bring people together.
The enemy here is the legion. The chaotic management of their own clubs, the Premier League making accusations and pushing for a 10-point deduction, and the independent panel finding them guilty and sanctioning them.
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They could also be potential new owners: Everton may be hot, but no one can look at 777 Partners, their track record and the sanctions FIFA has imposed on them for unpaid transfer fees, and fear they could represent a conflagration. Even Genoa, which was portrayed as a success story with 777 players after being promoted last season, is on the verge of bankruptcy. Everton are against the world and in the short term stimulating minds and strengthening nerves might not be such a bad thing.
If you have to drop 10 points there’s a feeling this might not be the worst possible season. Sheffield United and Luton were clearly clubs with limited resources, while Burnley were unexpectedly poor. The three promoted teams felt like a possible bottom three as it became clear that Vincent Kompany’s side could not produce the form that would allow them to dominate the Championship at a higher level. Bournemouth’s slow start under Andoni Iraola served as an added buffer for the lower mid-rows looking anxiously over their shoulders.
Before the disruption, Everton were sitting comfortably nine points clear of the drop: they were pushed back into the group rather than given a gap to break through to even get back into the relegation battle. The only caveat here is that all four of these challengers have front-loaded fixture lists: with just two games between them before this weekend, all but one of Everton’s remaining games before the halfway mark of the season have been against teams in the league. upper half.
Under these circumstances, United represent almost perfect opponents, representatives of old-school charm and order. For all this, in reality they are a cautionary tale about unregulated capitalism and the fallibility of inexperienced non-local ownership. United may have won four of their last five league games but they are not playing well and so they represent not only a potentially notable scalp but also a decent one. The memory of Phil Neville clacking Cristiano Ronaldo to bring Everton back to life in 2008-09 will haunt me on Sunday afternoon.
However, it is also a fact that United is one of the leaders of the English Super League campaign. Whataboutery is the death of justice – no regulatory body should fail to punish an offense just because other offenses go largely unpunished – but Everton fans are equally entitled to ask why spending a little too much money costs 10 points when plotting against the league. shared £22 million fine.
This is where the broader implications become very fascinating. Leaving the Super League issue aside, if the penalty for being convicted of breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations is that there will be sanctions imposed on a major sponsor and a player whose contract has been terminated, while there are extenuating circumstances of the pandemic. If it was terminated for non-footballing reasons, if the club was seemingly cooperative, what would be the sanction in a pre-Covid world for, say, 115 breaches, some of which relate to a lack of cooperation? In the Everton case, the Premier League demanded six points plus a sanction for every £5 million breached: this logic could have seen hundreds of points deducted from other clubs.
There is also the issue of compensation for those who were relegated while Everton were still alive. In 2009, West Ham reached an out-of-court settlement with Sheffield United for £15 million (plus £5 million if the club was sold within the next five years) and were fined for breaching rules on third-party ownership. Regarding Carlos Tevez, who scored the winner at Manchester United on the final day of the 2006-07 season to keep the Hammers alive.
If the tariff had then been £20 million, it is safe to assume that the equivalent would have been significantly higher than it is now, especially given that as many as five clubs were granted the right to pursue claims (although direct causation may be harder to prove than in the Tévez case). And again, no matter how high that fee was, it would be dwarfed by the potential figures of a side who have regularly been found guilty in Europe over a long period of time.
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From a broader perspective, this is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the Everton penalty. Nine months have passed since 115 allegations against Manchester City dating back to 2009 were announced. Even before the secret Cyprus files were revealed, the Premier League was investigating Chelsea’s finances dating back to 2012.
With the Everton case concluded with such grave consequences, the lack of resolution in the case against City becomes even more striking and the tariff is now set if they are found guilty. There are two key issues at stake here: can the Premier League sue clubs like Everton, but can it prosecute state- and oligarch-run clubs? And if they can, there is some sort of doubt in 12 of the last 19 league titles, with City charged and Chelsea under investigation.
Whatever the final results, the question will remain whether it is possible to organize the modern Premier League unless there is clearly a rigorous and comprehensive process. Everton’s anger may rightly be directed at those who managed them so poorly, at the apparent arbitrariness of the process, it may be partly self-pity but also a cry against the horror into which modern football has fallen. fell into the hands of forces beyond regulation.