Everton has been ordered to pay Burnley more than £35 million ($47 million) in compensation after being sued for Premier League profitability and sustainability breaches dating back to the 2021/22 season, when the Clarets were relegated.
The Toffees were docked 10 points in late 2023 for financial misdeeds, but the sentence was lowered to six points on appeal a few months later, under former owner Farhad Moshiri.
In 2021/22, Everton finished four points ahead of 18th-placed Burnley.
Burnley, on the other hand, correctly argued that if the six-point penalty for PSR breaches had been in effect that season, they would have survived at Everton’s expense.
But outraged Toffees officials submitted an appeal following Wednesday’s notification of what they say is a “flawed” decision, with Everton now on a more secure financial footing following the Merseyside club’s December 2024 acquisition by the US-based Friedkin Group.
“Everton Football Club is surprised and angered by the decision of a Premier League Independent Disciplinary Commission to order a compensation payment to Burnley Football Club in relation to Everton’s PSR breach in June 2022,” said a club statement.
“Everton has appealed the decision and is clear in its belief the ruling is fundamentally flawed in both law and fact…This ruling sets a dangerous and unworkable precedent for English football, given it is constructed on a principle that a club can be in breach of financial rules at any point in a financial year.
“Everton believes the panel’s ruling misrepresents the clear evidence presented by its legal representatives and that an appeal will be successful.”
However, Burnley chairman Alan Pace felt the decision vindicated his club’s actions.
“What we could not accept and what no club should be asked to accept was competing in a competition later shown to have been compromised,” he said in a statement.
“The Independent Commission has now confirmed, in clear terms, that a rule was broken and a competitive advantage was improperly gained.”
