‘Madness’: Ally McCoist and Jeff Stelling rant live on talkSPORT as another Everton points deduction mooted
Stelling questioned what Everton could possibly have done to avoid the sanctions after selling players and reducing spending, and claimed the daftest thing would be that the decision on sanctions may not be made until after the season ends.
McCoist described the decision as “absolute madness”, suggesting a situation where either Everton or Forest could finish just outside the relegation zone before a late points deduction sends them down.
Speaking live on talkSPORT [15 January, 06:23], Stelling questioned: “I’m not really sure what more they have to do. They’ve sold some of their big names and haven’t really brought anybody in, so what more do they have to do?
“You know the daftest thing about all of this? If there is a charge against any of the clubs and then there is an appeal, the final decision on any sanctions won’t be made until 24 May, five days after the end of the Premier League season.
“So we could finish the Premier League season not knowing their fate, and potentially which decision they’re in. I assume a points deduction would be imposed this season… If they’re found in breach they’ll have breached the rules this season, so any penalty will apply this season.”
McCoist was outraged by the update, ranting: “Well, that’s absolute madness. You could then have a season where Everton or Forest could finish two or three points outside of the relegation zone and still get relegated.”
Whatever your view is on whether or not Everton deserved to face sanctions as a result of their profit and loss breaches this season, it’s unquestionable that the wait for a decision to be made after the season has already ended is a bizarre way of going about it.
That means that either Everton or Forest, if found guilty of further breaches and charged with a points deduction, may not know their fate and whether they will remain in the Premier League until after the season ends, taking it completely out of their hands.
Ultimately it will be a factual statement of whether Everton have committed another breach of the rules, but the means and time taken to apply the punishment for said rule break may prove more of an issue than the punishment itself.
The anger from the fans will rightly bubble up once more, but rather than just aiming at the Premier League, surely some blame must lie with Farhad Moshiri for getting the club into such a perilous situation, to begin with.
