FAB to stage supporters meeting with North West metro mayors

Last night, Andy Burnham released a teaser tweet for today's meeting:

Tomorrow the campaign against the unfair treatment of @everton by the @premierleague goes up a gear.

The meeting will hear about a major development so is well worth attending. 👍🏻

This is now not just Everton's fight.

It's everyone's.

Register here > https://t.co/pCk1QiXmVZ pic.twitter.com/w1xuHMkoGG

— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) January 13, 2024

Hmmmm a major development eh?

Cue the list of bonkers theories!

Our 10 points have been returned and the RS have gone bust!!

Well, we can hope!!

Curious to hear whats being mooted?

I imagine it will be something along the lines of supporters from other clubs joining forces with Evertonians to try and get some sensible rules put in place by the football authorities.

As we saw yesterday at Reading's game, many fans are upset and annoyed about how the game is being managed by various bodies and how arbitrary some of the punishments are.

It's good to have rules, but those rules should be to ensure the survival of clubs, not a way of putting them out of business, due to the owners being less than frugal or the administrators of those clubs being unfit to do the job they are tasked with.

Most, if not all of the owners have passed a 'fit and proper' test to become owners of the clubs, what criteria apart from having money do these 'fit and proper' tests have? Remember, you can't punish the fans can you? Although many clubs in the past decade have been deducted points and therefore, who actually suffers, apart from the fans?

The meeting is being streamed on Twitch and on X / Twatter.

When ownership or senior management are incapable of ensuring the survival of a club, or are only concerned with their own gain, then they are not fit to run a club. For theirs is also a social responsibility to a community, to a sport. Pure financial gain cannot be the only driver of ownership. Control of the future and we'll being of clubs are the joint responsibility of owners and fans. Too long have we seen owners use the club as a personal plaything. Many wealthy people have unlimited access to finance, yet now under the guise of FFP and PSR, their ability to learn from their mistakes, to protect a club from their failure, to build for success, is removed. Moshiri knew nothing of football, believed in the passion of others, made mistakes without competent guidance, that is clear. But he stands to lose it all because of the incompetence and corruption of the management of the Premier League. Say what you like about Moshiri, but that's not right either.
There needs to be a different contract between ownership and fans, a charter we all agree to go by, no matter what league, with independent support for clubs, owners and fans. No one group has responsibility for the future of the game. We are all in it together, we all should have the support we all need.

Was a ‘fit and proper' test in operation when the late chairman bought the club?

I doubt it was because I doubt very much he would have passed the test having to borrow money in order to pay for his share of the price.

I cannot understand who Burnham and Rotherham think that they are?

They are hijacking the situation for their own notoriety, in order to propel themselves as some sort of saviours.

Everton have lawyers and a fan base to pressurise those who are sitting in judgement of us.

Mal @9,

Of course all politicians will be drawn to situations that might promote their personal political ambitions; however, Burnham and Rotherham have four of the biggest fan-bases within their constituencies and therefore have a duty to that potential electorate to act on behalf of those supporters.

I would be more annoyed if they both chose to stay in the shadows with regard to football governance and how it affects fans.

It would seem that the major development outlined in Andy Burnham's tweet cited in earlier posts, is a strongly worded letter to the Premier League, signed by Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England, and other prominent supporters, including Dame Sue Owen and Sir Brendan Barber.

Henry Winter@henrywinter

“We have no confidence in the process for deducting points from #EFC & feel very strongly that the severity of the deduction must be reduced by the commission assessing the appeal, or, ideally, replaced with a fine."

Powerful letter to the Premier League. @TimesSport

Martin Samuel in the Sunday Times (Behind a Paywall):

Condemning Everton and Forest a bit rich when rules set to be scrapped.

Changing profit and sustainability rules in August is a tacit admission that, in the present state, they are no longer fit for purpose.

Here we go – I don't understand what is corrupt about the situation.

We admit to breaking the rules and receive punishment – surely that's not corruption.

We just happen to be the first in line but the list continues beyond this parish, don't we have to wait to see how those cases pan out before shouting "foul"?

Surely the broader view dictates rescuing the game from financial chicannery requires such actions.

I've obviously missed something…

The Profitability & Sustainability rules are going to be changed in August.

Barry, we haven't done anything wrong in any meaningful way.

We admitted to exceeding allowable losses but there are more than enough mitigating circumstances to account for the relatively minor breach.

A 10-point deduction is excessive and unjust. What's more, it's arbitrary, and the rules will soon change, allowing other clubs to escape sanction.

Barry, you probably have a point to some degree. However, I like to think that I'm fairly level-headed in my views but still conclude there is such clear unfairness baked into the system that borders and probably strays into corruption from time to time.

Hardly surprising. The money involved globally, laundering of reputations, etc, etc.

Look at our own situation and connections with Iran, Uzbekistan, Putin's Russia. West Midlands clubs with links to China. Middle East ownership of others.

You think these people play fair?

Look at the VAR decisions for Champions League royalty across Europe. Look at the decisions that don't go to the VAR. The game is bent.

Football is big business meets geopolitics. Expect corruption.

If there wasn't an injustice going on Barry, people like Andy Burnham, Steve Rotherham, Mark Carney, Dame Sue Owen, Sir Brendan Barber, Ian Byrne MP and a whole host of other MP's & prominent figures would not be getting involved.

Andy Burnham stressed at this mornings FAB meeting that everyone must write to their MP and I'm sure Lyndon and Michael will reiterate this point over the next days.

Still no argument proffered to justify "corruption".

Irritation about the amount of points deducted isn't the same thing and politicians jumping on a headline grabbing bandwagon proves nothing. As Roy Keane would say "that's their job"

Mal@9

Andy Burnham is and has been an Evertonian all his life. He's also a season ticket holder and, if he thinks he can further Everton's cause, then let him get on with it. I doubt if he's thinking of personal gain.

Besides being a season ticket holder, Andy Burnham can also be seen at some away games. Only a couple of weeks ago, he was at the Wolves game.

Thankfully he's using his public profile to draw attention to our plight. It beggars belief that he'd get any criticism for this.

I see no politicians jumping on a bandwagon, nor hijacking the situation.

Andy Burnham has been taking an active interest in the running/governance of football clubs for decades. If memory serves me, he was a key figure in the formation of Supporters Direct, in 2000, which was about setting up supporters trusts up and down the country.

He's a keen Evertonian. He has drawn upon his experience in government and used his acumen to forensically question the Premier League over how its "independent" commission came to decide upon a ten-point penalty.

Following up with a letter signed by a former Civil Service bigwig, a former Bank of England governor and an ex-chief of the TUC (all people who know about proper process) is something akin to a masterstroke.

I am also sure Steve Rotheram was at Sunday's meeting for all the right reasons.

Plus, it is much better for the City Region, of which he is Mayor, if it has two Premier League clubs, rather than one. And the skyline won't look great with an unfinished stadium dominating it.

Am also grateful for the submitting of an Early Day Motion in Parliament, very soon after the deduction, by one of the city's MPs. Ian Byrne, I believe.

Yes, people entrusted to efficiently run EFC have got it into a horrendous scrape with the Premier League. But the people running the Premier League also have plenty of questions to answer.

If Farhad Moshiri has got one thing right, it was January last year when he said:
"This is the most critical time in our history. It is almost an existential point,"

Existential... continued existence in doubt.

And that was before the points deduction in November.

Let's support those supporting Everton.

Barry # 18, I think fans will struggle to identify solid examples of corruption for you in the present case because people commiting crimes like corruption tend not to publicise their activities.

However there's a fairly well known history of corruption scandals in football.

- Marseille (Bribery)

- Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio (referee rigging)

- Russia and Qatar world cup hosting

- FIFA Bribery, money laundering and fraud

- the Telegraph investigation in 2016 exposing bungs, third party ownership etc etc

It highlights a fairly steady set of examples of corruption on football for an extended period at both club level and institutional level going right to the top.

It would be extremely surprising in this context to discover that Premier League football is clean. It would also be extremely unsurprising to discover our treatment over finances and in matches themselves with refereeing and VAR is subject to interference by the Rich 6 and their owners (who we stood in the way of), the TV broadcasters globally and even betting syndicates.