Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has reacted with astonishment to reports of a potential major setback for one of the Reds’ oldest rivals.
On Wednesday afternoon, The Telegraph reported that the Premier League has recommended that Everton face a 12-point deduction for a breach of profit and sustainability rules, with a decision on the matter expected later this year.
The league is pushing for the book to be thrown at the Goodison Park club, whose case is currently being heard by an independent commission after they posted £304m in losses over a three-year period, far exceeding the EPL’s permitted £105m threshold.
Taking to X in the wake of this bombshell report, Carragher was keen to stress that the team he supported as a boy are far from the only culprits when it comes to a failure to abide by the Premier League’s financial regulations.
He fumed: “The PL want a 12 point deduction for Everton for one charge. Man City are going to end up in the National League North if the PL get their way!!
“Unbelievable the amount of stories that come out about Everton’s situation, but Man City’s, which has 114 more charges & has gone on for much longer, has gone very quiet”
The PL want a 12 point deduction for Everton for one charge.
Man City are going to end up in the National League North if the PL get their way!!Unbelievable the amount of stories that come out about Everton’s situation, but Man City’s, which has 114 more charges & has gone on… https://t.co/WjryWUxLUB
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) October 25, 2023
READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp shares positive Andy Robertson update after Liverpool defender’s surgery
As Carragher pointed out, a verdict has still to be made on the Premier League’s 115 charges against Man City for alleged breaches of its financial regulations over a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018.
Pep Guardiola’s side dodged the threat of expulsion from European competitions in 2020 after a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who found that most of the Financial Fair Play charges brought by UEFA were either not established or happened beyond the punishable time threshold (Sky Sports).
However, they mightn’t (and shouldn’t) find it so easy to wriggle their way out of trouble over the EPL breaches, with no time bar to save them this time.
Carragher is right to pose the question as to why Everton are being threatened so severely while the multitude of charges against City appears to have been swept off the agenda.
When it comes to the fate of those two clubs being adjudicated upon, you’d hope that whatever punishments are meted out (if any) would be proportional to the number and severity of the rule breaches for which they’re found guilty.
If the Merseysiders are to be hit by a points deduction, then you’d surely imagine that, by right, the Manchester outfit would be penalised significantly given the much higher volume of charges they’re facing.
#Ep94 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️