According to Stefan Borson, the appeal ruling that decreased Everton’s points deduction does not benefit the club with possible compensation claims from other teams.
The former Manchester City finance advisor replied on Twitter on February 26th, after the judgement reduced the Toffees’ fine to six points, stating that the result supported a lot of the reasons that others will likely use in claims against the club.
He wrote, “One matter not mentioned at all in the Appeal is the consequential claims under the PL rules for compensation.” The Appeal ruling does not benefit Everton because it establishes sporting advantage, significant breach, little mitigation, some aggravation, and other factors that the impacted clubs can use to support their causality arguments.
“I do not believe it is correct that no clubs notified the IC. That wouldn’t make sense. I believe they all given notice in fact.
“The IC did not make it reliant on the appeal. And any claims will be kept anonymous, so we don’t know. However, it is quite improbable that every team that had previously approached the IC decided not to proceed.”
Three relegated clubs, plus Burnley and Nottingham Forest, could have launched a claim against Everton following the appeal ruling.
In principle, it appears to leave the door open for other clubs’ claims to proceed, but it is unclear how any panel could adequately establish how much any of them were damaged by Everton.
Given that the commission was found to have failed to properly calculate the fine on the club, there is little faith that another board will be able to decide compensation claims in a watertight manner.
The most recent hint before Christmas was that Leeds United and others were more willing to discuss a resolution directly in order to avoid pushing Everton into such a situation.
However, if Borson’s prognosis is correct and the former relegation rivals have gone forward with action against the Toffees, it might still be an uncomfortable situation, even if Forest’s own profit and sustainability charge would undoubtedly transform their position.
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