On Friday, when India was in the grip of the impending World Cup final fever, English football senior citizens Everton were handed the biggest sporting sanction in the Premier League’s 31-year history for breaching the competition’s financial rules, with the deduction of 10 points dropping the team into next-to-last place in the standings. The Telegraph answers your questions:

Q: Why has Everton been penalised?

A: The northwest England club reported losses totaling £124.5 million (US $154.70 million) for the Premier League season ending 2021-22. The league’s profit and financial sustainability rules (PSR) allow clubs to lose a maximum of £105 million ($128 million) or face sanctions.

Q: Why was the probe begun?

A: Everton blamed their ballooning losses on costs associated with a new stadium project and the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The Premier League countered in its claim that some of the losses were simply down to the poor running of
the club, resulting in overspending on recruitment and salary costs.

Premier League teams could write off losses attributed to the pandemic and to new stadium construction only during the 2020-21 season (Everton are building a new stadium to be ready next season). The league believed Everton tried to claim those losses again the next season after they overspent on player transfers and operational costs. Under the rules, Everton have seven days to submit its appeal.

Q: Who made the decision?

A: The league referred Everton to an independent commission in March because of the alleged PSR breach, following complaints from a slew of rival clubs. The commission, chaired by David Phillips KC and including a lawyer and an accountant, reviewed evidence provided by the Premier League and Everton to reach their decision. A five-day hearing was held last month. “The Commission determined that Everton FC’s PSR Calculation for the relevant period resulted in a loss of 124.5 million pounds, as contended by the Premier League, which exceeded the threshold of 105 million pounds permitted under the PSRs,” it said in a statement on Friday.

Q: What does it mean for Everton?

A: The club have been docked 10 points, which sees them fall from 14 points to four with immediate effect. That’s the same number of points as last-place Burnley. Everton has a superior goal difference.

Q: What has Everton said?

A: The club said they were “shocked and disappointed” by the ruling and will be appealing. “Both the harshness and severity of the sanction imposed are neither a fair nor a reasonable reflection of the evidence submitted,” Everton said in a statement. It added that they would “monitor
with great interest the decisions made in any other cases concerning the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules”.

Q: What are the other cases”?

A: It’s a not-so-veiled reference to Manchester City, who are facing 115 charges of breaching the rules (to Everton’s one), and possibly Chelsea, who are currently under investigation for alleged wrongdoing between 2012 and 2019. Everton feel they have been singled out.

Q: What next?

A: Any appeal by Everton would be taken seriously by the Premier League. Of course, no one knows when such an appeal will be heard but ideally it will need to be sooner rather than later as the season progresses. Also, it remains to be seen if clubs like Leicester City, who were narrowly relegated from the Premier League to the Championship instead of Everton in the previous two seasons (2021/22 and 2022/23), take any action, arguing that if Everton’s sanction had been handed down earlier, Everton would have been relegated instead.

Q: Have clubs been docked points earlier?

A: During the 1996-97 season, Middlesbrough lost three points after they unilaterally postponed a game against Blackburn Rovers because they said 23 of their players were either sick or injured. Middlesbrough would have finished in 14th place had they not been punished; instead, they were relegated to the second division of English football.

In 2010, the league deducted nine points from Portsmouth after the club was declared insolvent. They, too, were relegated and have not returned to the Premier League since. Portsmouth currently compete in the third tier of English football.

Inputs from Reuters & AP/PTI