Everton are set to enter the final weeks of the club’s financial year fighting the impact of controversial Profit and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) on two fronts. The club is one of several understood to be under pressure for the three year assessment period that concludes at the end of this month. But there also remains an outstanding dispute with the Premier League over last season’s accounts.
The uncertainty creates the absurd position whereby Everton are operating in a complex grey area while trying to stave off the threat of two more points deductions. During Everton’s arguments with the Premier League earlier this year, debate over one key issue was postponed. The independent commission that sat on the club’s second case ruled a fight over how the club accounted for interest on loans it said were for the development of its new waterfront stadium was too complex to be dealt with at the time.
Months later, the ECHO understands the matter remains unresolved as the club tries to plan for its final season at Goodison Park. The argument is over £6.5m of interest retrospectively capitalised by the club across the 2021 and 2022 campaigns and an attempt to do the same with another tranche of money in the year that ended in the summer of 2023.
Should Everton lose that debate then it could mean its previous breaches were by larger sums than the club was punished for. A rare consistency of the judgements to date has been that the size of any breach should dictate the se.