The only mitigating factors I would of mentioned if I were Everton are;
1) The new stadium
2) Sigurdsson
3) Ukraine war
4) Richarlison
1) The new stadium whether paid for out of our owners pocket or not should be the main mitigation. A club trying to move to a better ground to improve their own finances in the long term and improve their sporting position should be allowed to remove all costs from the profit and sustainability. Everton should have supplied Kings Dock and Kirky as evidence that the club have activity been trying to leave Goodison for twenty years. This is not a new thing nor should it be considered a rule break for profit and sustainability because the club have/are trying to create a better stadium which will create jobs, improve a deprived area and be used in future tournaments.
2) Sigurdsson cost Everton around 50m. Upon accusations that he had done something wrong Everton were subsequently told he was not able to play. This therefore affected his book value and Everton’s ability to sell him. It is not unreasonable to assume he would have fetched 15-20m if Everton wanted to sell him. However, the PL said Everton should have sued the player for 10m to cover wages and I imagine a breach of contract of some sort. Everton chose not to go down this route as they put the mental health of the player first. This outlook from the PL and the subsequent commission is completely wrong. The player was an Everton player whom Everton could not play, nor sell, nor chose to sue. Sigurdsson has now been cleared of all charges, does this mean that now we could have played him all along? If so, Everton should sue the PL for their ruling that a player could not play during an investigation when other players such as Anthony at Manchester United are allowed.
3) Everton’s main sponsorship came from Usmanov. Whether this was a front or not does not negate the fact Moshiri passed the ownership test and most clubs have outside investment from various sources. Our training ground was called USM Finch Farm, we had MegaFon plastered on the stadium. The war in Ukraine broke out and sanctioned anyone with money linked to Russia. Roman Abramovich, whom the PL had allowed for years to be the owner of Chelsea without even a wimper, was himself subject to a sanction and Chelsea was sold. One of Everton’s mitigating circumstances was that this war affected a future sponsorship deal for the stadium which would have generated 25m plus per annum. The PL disregarded this as they said ‘nothing was signed’. I would have used Arsenal’s stadium as an example for this circumstance. Nobody get a sponsorship deal signed three years before a stadium’s completion. Arsenal’s stadium was not called the Emirates before they decided to sponsor it for 15 years, but this was not done before a spade was in the ground. This was agreed during the construction. It is unrealistic to say that just because there wasn’t anything signed that the stadium would of been sponsored by one of Usmanov’s subsidiaries. To brush this off as ‘an everyday business occurrence’ and something which ‘businesses have to deal with everyday’ would in essence mean that war’s between countries break out all the time and it’s just unfortunate. Everton lost all funding from Usmanov overnight. This was something which nobody could forsee, if it was, then the PL should of never agreed for us to be taken over by Moshiri whom clearly had a relationship with Usmanov.
4) A Brazilian international striker whom Everton bought for 35m rising to 50m whom we had to sell for as little as 60m due to the FFP situation the club knew it was in/heading towards. This should have proven to the PL that Everton had tried everything possible to get figures down by trading a player for less than what he was worth. Everton had an offer and were in no position to say no. Nottingham Forest’s mitigation in regards to Brennan Johnson will be very interesting to Everton as it’s a similar scenario. Everton knew they could obtain more money for Richarlison but once the offer came in it was almost one which could not be refused. The PL rejected this as they basically agreed that he was sold for what he was worth at the time. Everton said he was worth at least 80m but the PL disagreed. Everton will be monitoring Brennan Johnson’s excuse really carefully as if the PL agree’s with Forest then ultimately Everton will need to take the PL to the highest court in the land.
The other mitigation was poor from Everton but the above imo has traction. I do not understand how any independent comission could have simply said none of these factors are relevant to you over spending of 19.5m. All 4 certainly are.
