EPL: Everton ordered to pay Burnley £35m over relegation dispute

Everton have been ordered to pay Burnley more than £35 million ($47 million)in compensation after they were sued over Premier League profitability and sustainability breaches from the 2021/22 season when the Clarets were relegated.

The Toffees were deducted 10 points in late 2023 for financial misdemeanours, a punishment reduced to six points on appeal a few months later, under former owner Farhad Moshiri.

Everton finished four points above 18th-placed Burnley in 2021/22.

Burnley, however, successfully argued that had the six-point penalty for PSR breaches been applied that season they would have survived at Everton’s expense.

But furious Toffees chiefs launched an appeal following Wednesday’s announcement of what they believe is a “flawed” judgement, with Everton now on a more secure financial following the December 2024 takeover of the Merseyside club 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.”

Burnley chairman Alan Pace, however, felt his club’s actions had been vindicated by the judgement.

“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.”

AFP