Everton takeover can finally put supporters at ease as pain remains after bombshell statement

it was a ruling that sent shockwaves throughout football. Everton had been deducted 10 points by the Premier League.

On 17th November 2023, the Blues were found guilty of breaching PSR regulations and were hit with the most severe sporting sanction in the 135-year history of English top flight football.

It was a ruling that cast a shadow on Everton and plunged them back into the bottom three. The punishment was later to reduced to six points on appeal, although the Blues were hit with a further two-point deduction for a second breach later in the campaign. Despite the cumulative eight-point hit, Everton avoided relegation with games to spare.

A year on from the bombshell announcement, our Everton writers reflect on the shock of that sanction and the lasting impact it has had.

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Joe Thomas

Everton's punishment came as a complete shock. The Premier League handbook suggested a deduction could follow a breach of the rules but the overview of the legislation was so vague it still felt a distant possibility. In the week before the announcement there were reports the Premier League had sought a significant points deduction but even then, I thought the worst case scenario would be much smaller if it came to that.

So when the verdict was announced the scale of the penalty was a major surprise. I still don't understand how it was ever deemed appropriate. It did not seem grounded in reality, given it was greater than the consequences of a club entering administration - a fate with more severe repercussions not just in football but within the wider community that is built around a top flight team.

Clearly, that view was held elsewhere as the appeals commission eventually reduced it, but even six felt harsh. One of the major challenges in the months that followed was balancing the view the club had been poorly run, mistakes had been made and the breach deserved punishment, against the belief the punishment was unfair and the result of a vague process built around complex legislation. I thought Everton's supporters navigated that path well. One of the great misrepresentations of what followed was the perception the fanbase was arguing the club did not deserve sanction. So many of those involved had worked hard over the previous years to highlight their concerns over the running of the club. The fight was for the club to be treated fairly when placed under that scrutiny.

The way they united behind the players was incredible and that run of four consecutive wins was sensational. The atmosphere at Goodison Park as Everton trounced Newcastle United and when Lewis Dobbin confirmed the win over Chelsea was ferocious. For supporters and players to overcome the shock - and the immediate disappointment when Manchester United won in the first game after the deduction - was a credit to both.

There were still many tough moments during the season, with the uncertainty cast by the appeal and second case clearly a factor in the poor form at the start of 2024. But the story of Everton in the past few seasons is one of just how powerful the club can be when the dressing room and the stands unite in adversity. Hopefully the new stadium will see that power harnessed in fights for glory rather than survival.

Matt Jones

The points deduction was a body blow. Yet it handed Everton something both powerful and fragile.

In the aftermath, there was a palpable sense of unity and defiance. That was there in the stands at Goodison Park and away ends across the country. It was clearly something the team fed off in their run of four wins in succession soon after.

But when the team did eventually tail off - they went four months without a win - the points deduction became part of a wider hard luck story. Shoulders were slumped, spirits were down and it did feel like the world was conspiring against the Blues. Thankfully they shook themselves out of it.

There has been a long-term impact too. The deduction has left a scar. It has not only contributed to the worst-case-scenario mindset that has understandably engulfed the club in recent years, but any 'highs' the club have endured amid such turbulent times have been tinged by a worry that something bad might be coming down the tracks. After all, the first deduction was quickly followed by a second.

As things stand, Everton still have issues unresolved from their previous PSR case and while any ramifications from that are not expected to be as seismic as what happened a year ago, it's still lingering in the background. That scar won't start to heal until it is.

A takeover and a subsequently stronger financial foundation feels like the only way to rid Evertonians of this angst. In addition to evolving the team, staff and board, putting any fiscal fears to bed quickly must be a priority for the Friedkin Group.

Paul Wheelock

The ill-feeling felt toward the Premier League still lingers, one year on. And let's not forget, if they had their way, Everton would have been docked 12 points the first time around and five points the second..

While the Blues deserved to be sanctioned for breaking the rules, the punishment did not fit the crime and the thought that the Premier League saw the club as an easy target remains inescapable.

But while no Evertonian would want to go through that again, it did galvanise the fanbase and that four-match winning run before Christmas that obliterated the draconian sentence handed down was thrilling and showed how powerful Everton can be when the team and supporters are aligned.

But, understandably, that can only taken you so far and, as the form slipped and victories came a lot harder to come by, you could not blame anyone associated with the club for thinking what might have been if those points had remained on the board.

To Sean Dyche's and his players' credit, the Blues produced another winning streak at the back end of the campaign to survive comfortably regardless.

But the scars are still there. It was horrible going to matches thinking, for example, a point that looked and felt like a good result was anything but, and that's why any remaining PSR cases with Everton need to be resolved quickly and why the Friedkin Group, once they complete their takeover of the club, do not put it in the same position again.

Because, as we've seen already, the Blues will not be expecting leniency from the Premier League.