Royal Blue

Everton have been deducted a further two points after the outcome of their second Profit and Sustainability Rules case this season was announced. After Everton handed an initial 10-point deduction in November – the biggest sporting sanction in 135 years of English top flight football at the time – which was later reduced to six points on appeal, the club were charged with a second breach of Premier League PSR in mid-January; which began a 12-week disciplinary process. Everton set out its position in a three-day hearing last month amid what has been a process lacking in clarity or guidelines. The appeal panel for Everton’s first charge said that there had been two “legal errors” in the club’s original verdict but then the independent commission handling Nottingham Forest’s charge only handed them a four-point deduction for a breach 77% larger than Everton’s, acknowledged it could not be sure how even the reduced punishment handed to the Blues had been calculated. Join Chris Beesley and Gav Buckland for the lat