So, it’s finally official. After losing 10 points back in late November for a financial infringement, 4 points will be added back to our tally for this season. They will give us a small but not insignificant buffer from the drop zone, crucially taking us 1 point above Nottingham Forest, who are charged with their own Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) breach, and 5 points clear of the resurgent Luton Town. What was beginning to look like yet another uphill battle to avoid relegation now appears ever so slightly brighter.
But the little waft of positivity we’ve received today is no consolation. It remains a bitter pill to swallow after what has been a farcical few months from start to finish. It goes without saying that the Premier League is rife with corruption, but the ineptitude of their handling of this investigation has led to complete disillusionment over what the P&S rules are and should be.
Media outlets, fans and former players all seemed to agree that the 10-point deduction was ludicrously harsh to begin with. Today’s reasonably positive outcome only makes me think that the Premier League and the independent commission knew what they were going to do from the very beginning.
It mimics the plotline of a typical Orwellian piece – inflict a cruel and disproportionate sanction to deter others, shoulder the inevitable complaints, and then reduce the sentence. The final punishment remains inflated, but the victims feel less aggrieved knowing they had it worse and their appeal was successful.
Whether this improves our outlook on our chances of survival or not, we are still being royally fleeced by the powers that be. Everton have also been charged with a second potential breach of PSR, covering 75% of the financial period for which we have already been penalised. The legal expression ‘double jeopardy’ is a term that I’m sure many of us won’t have really heard of, used or properly understood before, but I can say I’ve heard it uttered more frequently in the weeks since the second charge was announced.
Consider also that, when we received the revised punishment earlier today, the Premier League noted that it had withdrawn claims that Everton had not acted in good faith and only two of the nine grounds we appealed on were upheld. For that reason, the prospect of a second punishment being handed out by the Premier League seems untenable from a legal point of view. However, we do just appear to be the protagonist in their great satirical comedy and our fate will solely depend on what they decide to throw at us next time. I for one will not be counting a single chicken.
A second deduction of 6 points would take us back into the bearpit of relegation, undo more of our improved work this season, and land yet another knockout blow on an already mentally depleted team and fanbase. The only saving grace would be the ongoing investigation involving Nottingham Forest, meaning that Everton could still sit outside the Bottom 3 even with a further points deduction. It is far from an encouraging situation, though, and we must retain a relentless attitude to the very end considering some investigations and appeals may only conclude after the season has already finished.
That said, we were galvanised by the news of the first points deduction where the team picked up 12 out of a possible 15 points from our following five games. We’d kill for a similar reaction this time around, particularly with some tougher fixtures on the horizon. While I believe we’ll see some sort of reaction from the fans against West Ham on Saturday, I feel like we are wholly exhausted as a fan base and our reaction is in danger of appearing less hostile than it should be.
I would encourage every one of our fans attending at the weekend to make Goodison Park the bearpit it can be on its best days, not just to spur on the boys in the blue jersey but to sustain our stand against those destroying our game. We as fans have done an impeccable job over the last few years of dragging the team over the line when they need it – this time, they need us again through no fault of their own.
We are all immensely frustrated with what our club has become, but with any luck, these next few months will be the dying breaths of the turmoil that has engulfed us in recent years. As they say, there’s always a rainbow after the storm.