Times article, Burnley/Leeds threaten to sue Everton

[ToffeeTim]

I am one who's says please let's try hold on to players like Richie but then again we gota get back into the black asap

We need to sell some players. We need fees and wage savings. Its hard to see an easy way to do that without a big sale.

Players with 1 year left need to be sold. We cant let so many leave for free

 

[Goat]

@catcherintherye this.

Also I think the accounts were submitted to the Premier League last year, they were made public in March, but the PL have had them for longer than that.

 

[catcherintherye]

I scanned the accounts, if its there, I havent seen it, I doubt its there, it wouldnt be a fair reflection of the accounts if we said "And we are going to take 180m off our loses cos of covid". As you say, its implied all over the place, but ive yet to see the 180m figure listed in our accounts.

The only thing ive seen is that journo on twitter who posted the thing, christ, im gonna have to look for him, brb.

I suppose it would come down to 2 things then:
1) How clearly is it implied
2) Whether supplementary private documentation was provided, that is not on the public domain.

What I can say is:
1) The club both privately and publicly are briefing very firmly the PL have accepted their accounts are within FFP rules.

2) The PL appeared to brief similarly. And have not yet charged Everton, or suggested to charge Everton, which would have seemed obvious had they not accepted them.

3) Leeds/Burnley from the press release at least, seem to verify this too. Had the PL not verified them, there is not a need for an independent committee. They just straight ask for punishment.

I'm having another look now to see if anything else comes up.

 

[davek]

Everton 'confident' they have complied by FFP rules after Burnley and Leeds threaten legal action

Premier League rules allow clubs to lose a maximum of £105m over three years; clubs have been allowed to write off losses caused by the pandemic; in their latest accounts Everton said £170m of their losses were caused by the pandemic

www.skysports.com

It’s on skys website now, this is nuts, we went through all this in the middle of the season. Leeds and Burnley can’t honestly believe that after walking away from us in the middle of the season and saying they are happy we have complied, that the premier league would come back at the end of the season and say “actually, No, you didn’t comply, we are going to deduct points from you”.

We would surely go back to the court of arbitration for sport and get the decision overturned if they did?

That headline of Sky Sports is misleading. Everton didn't say they are 'confident' they have complied with the PL on this, they stated they are 'comfortable' they have...which changes the tone quite a bit.

 

[Goat]

I suppose it would come down to 2 things then:
1) How clearly is it implied
2) Whether supplementary private documentation was provided, that is not on the public domain.

What I can say is:
1) The club both privately and publicly are briefing very firmly the PL have accepted their accounts are within FFP rules.

2) The PL appeared to brief similarly. And have not yet charged Everton, or suggested to charge Everton, which would have seemed obvious had they not accepted them.

3) Leeds/Burnley from the press release at least, seem to verify this too. Had the PL not verified them, there is not a need for an independent committee. They just straight ask for punishment.

I'm having another look now to see if anything else comes up.

I must stress that I dont expect anything to happen, personally.

 

[HalfTimeSayers]

My only point is that the 180million we attributed to covid does not appear in our accounts, anywhere.

Correct. That’s nothing to do with the accounts, it bridges the gap between the accounting loss and the loss we are saying meets the P&S criteria.

We claim it’s been checked by auditors, but it’s not “audited” in the statutory sense. Those mentioned in the accounts will have been, but not the “we think there’s loads more” bit.

What’s happened is that you have your 3 year period. Year 1 was a bloodbath, so naturally you think Christ, better sort it out in years 2 and 3. We lost this opportunity due to Covid, which is very fair. We will have claimed we intended to sell DCL at peak value, but due to the market being far more cautious coming out of lockdown, all clubs were skint, we could no longer do it.

Or we would have cut staff costs, but couldn’t because everyone was on furlough and a mass culling would have been hugely inappropriate.

The P&S rules became totally unworkable due to Covid as if you had just fapped cash up the wall in 2019, you could never recover in 20 and 21.

I assume that will have been the basis of our agreeement with the PL.

 

[catcherintherye]

@catcherintherye this.

Also I think the accounts were submitted to the Premier League last year, they were made public in March, but the PL have had them for longer than that.

So my take would be what we understand "add ons included" would mean. If we havent specifically mentioned the number of uncrystalised losses, difficult to know how it can be said with any certainty what those losses are.

It may be the PL have looked at all.the evidence, and their auditing team have signed off on 84m losses (within the limit). In some ways its irrelevant how they have got to that point, if they are satisfied enough to have signed off, and we are not deemed to have withheld information (which feels very unlikely as we have made public mention of it) then effectively the PL have signed off on the accounts being under the FFP limit.

 

[catcherintherye]

That headline of Sky Sports is misleading. Everton didn't say they are 'confident' they have complied with the PL on this, they stated they are 'comfortable' they have...which changes the tone quite a bit.

Comfortable and confident sound equally firm to me mate.

If we hadnt, I'm not sure the PL wait 2 months to u turn on it.

 

[ToffeeTim]

I must stress that I dont expect anything to happen, personally.

I dont either. That would need the PL to turn round and say they got it wrong and there were breaches. Any punishment (unlikely imo) is going to be next season too you would imagine.

We are going to need to change drastically how we operate though. Wages and fees are going to come down. We are not going to be many signing players 28 and older who will have no value after their first contract.

I hope...

 

[davek]

So my take would be what we understand "add ons included" would mean. If we havent specifically mentioned the number of uncrystalised losses, difficult to know how it can be said with any certainty what those losses are.

It may be the PL have looked at all.the evidence, and their auditing team have signed off on 84m losses (within the limit). In some ways its irrelevant how they have got to that point, if they are satisfied enough to have signed off, and we are not deemed to have withheld information (which feels very unlikely as we have made public mention of it) then effectively the PL have signed off on the accounts being under the FFP limit.

Bottom line on that is that it's a pandemic...a once in a hundred year (we hope) human event.

It's been used to explain away and contextualise a hell of a lot in economic and political activity, and the precedent outside football and inside it is set.

 

[Rita_Poon]

What strange bedfellows a temporary common enemy make.
Come Sunday evening which one of these two complainants suddenly is a lot less bothered?
Shambles!

 

[OneTrueLegend]

That headline of Sky Sports is misleading. Everton didn't say they are 'confident' they have complied with the PL on this, they stated they are 'comfortable' they have...which changes the tone quite a bit.

Agreed, Murdock press are very “click baity”. We went through this financial investigation in January. Surely no one at this point, other than those that hate us, would think is acceptable to effectively clear us in January, then in May, deduct points from us?! But it generates clicks to their website and earns them money from advertising

 

[Tin-Tin]

Sounds like Leeds and Burnley are threatning both us and the PL (assuming as they accepted our figures)

 

[Lob]

 

[davek]

I must stress that I dont expect anything to happen, personally.

I dont either. That would need the PL to turn round and say they got it wrong and there were breaches. Any punishment (unlikely imo) is going to be next season too you would imagine.

We are going to need to change drastically how we operate though. Wages and fees are going to come down. We are not going to be many signing players 28 and older who will have no value after their first contract.

I hope...

Kicked into the long grass and a fine - at most.

The worst thing this does is place a bit of a cloud over the fanbase for a few weeks.

We dont deserve that.