Everton suffer bizarre snub in Premier League video after double points deduction

Evertonians have been left furious over what appears to be pettiness from the Premier League in omitting their club from a cartoon that tells the story of the season.

The 80-second illustration, put out on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption: "We've been on quite the journey in 2023/24.... what will the final day produce tomorrow?" includes a drawing of a player/and/or manager from all 19 other teams in the division other than the Blues, who are only referenced in terms of a couple of opposition goals against them from Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho and Chelsea’s Cole Palmer.

The sequence starts with scenes outside the grounds of the three newly-promoted clubs, Luton Town, Sheffield United and Burnley then shows some summer signings, changing rooms, match action and a reference to the title race but Everton – ironically the club who has played more seasons in the top flight of English football than anyone else (121, some 11 more than closest challenges Aston Villa) and are the only founder members of the Football League in 1888 and Premier League in 1992 to be ever-presents in the latter are conspicuous by their absence.

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Everton supporters have been at loggerheads with the Premier League for large portions of the season with the club initially being given a 10-point deduction – the most severe sporting sanction in 135 years of English top flight football at the time – in November for a single PSR breach. Although this was later reduced to six points with the Appeal panel stating that the original decision included legal errors, Everton were subsequently docked a further two points for a second charge with the Premier League having recommended they be deducted 17 points in total.

The decisions prompted mass protests at games with the Premier League anthem being booed, fans displaying protest cards and widespread chanting against the Premier League. Given that Nottingham Forest – a club who were given a smaller points deduction for a larger financial breach than Everton – are featured in the video at least three times, it does little to allay fears from Blues that those within Richard Masters’ organisation have it in for their team with the chief executive also appearing to brand them “a small club.”

It’s not the first time that Everton have been left out of a Premier League publication. They ignored the construction of the club’s new stadium in a section on building blocks for the future in their annual report at a time when the project at Bramley-Moore Dock was at the heart of the PSR dispute with them and any promotion of the Blues’ future home might have contradicted the case against them, although they insist this was not a deliberate act, they have to balance club stories over the whole report and there is a feature on Everton's community activity on page 85.

Both Everton and the Premier League have declined to comment on the omission when asked by the ECHO but a spokesperson for the latter has pointed out that two Blues players (animations of Jarrad Branthwaite and Jordan Pickford) do feature in their website edit of the video where there is a wider crop angle.