Specifically
Our deduction 8 max:
217. We have taken into account the fact that, under rule E.35, a PL club suffers a nine point deduction on an "Event of Insolvency". Mr Rabinowitz submitted, with some force, that an Event of Insolvency is an inevitably more serious matter for the relevant club in respect of its sustainability, and so for the integrity of the PL as a competition; which is indicative that a nine or more point penalty for the Club in respect of its breach of the PSR would be too high. The two penalties are not, in our view, directly comparable because, as Mr Lewis pointed out, the nine point penalty under rule E.35 is automatic and may be accompanied by other disciplinary sanctions for breaches of other rules which an Event of Insolvency (or the underlying circumstances) may trigger. Nevertheless, we found this submission by Mr Rabinowitz to have some force. It suggests that the ten point penalty here was internally inconsistent within the framework of the PL Rules.
Forest 8 reduced by 50%
214. We have also had regard to the cases which have been determined on the basis of the EFL P&S Rules and Guidelines. Mr Rabinowitz specifically referred us to Sheffield Wednesday (see, e.g., paragraph 91 of the Club's Written Submissions).
In that case, the club had exceeded the EFL upper loss threshold by 46.7% (equivalent of a £49m overspend in the PL, compared with the Club's overspend of just under {20m), and the club had a worsening trend of losses. The club offered no explanation for its losses, having spent 168.1% of its entire turnover in the last year of the relevant period on wages alone.
The case, it was submitted, was
therefore in every respect more serious than this case; but a deduction of only six points was made. However, that submission fails to take into account that the Commission in that case was minded to deduct 12 points, but for the mitigation of the club having sold its ground shortly after the relevant period which, had the ground been sold less than three weeks earlier, would have meant that the P&S Rules would not have been breached at all. That was the reason why the Commission reduced the deduction from 12 points to six (see [113]). We deal with the mitigation relied on by the Club below (see paragraphs 220-224); but the Club has no golden mitigation point such as that.
