Everton CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale goes missing as regulator she helped propose looms over Goodison Park - Martin Samuel
Denise Barrett-Baxendale has gone quiet since realising the independent regulator she helped propose may aim for Everton first, says Martin Samuel.
The Times writer has cited that dynamic, alongside the messy situation that has seen the Premier League go back on its word to charge the Toffees with an FFP breach thanks to the incompatibility of real-time accounting in football, as evidence for why the impending government oversight is so complicated.
Everton, and other clubs, had been assured a year earlier that everything was fine with the club’s finances, only to refer them to the independent panel when the accounts were submitted, and that has turned up the heat on both the club and the league with the threat of the regulator closing in.
Samuel writes in The Times: “Everton’s chief executive officer, Denise Barrett-Baxendale, was on the advisory panel of the original government review, which proposed a regulator, but appears to have gone rather quiet now it appears the first place one might come calling is Goodison Park.
“Particularly with the threat of licence removal also becoming real.”
Rogue
Talk about being between a rock and a hard place for Everton fans, with the despised board running the club now at loggerheads with a league which they are desperately trying not to fall out of.
And on the horizon the the government appears set to be added to the equation, just when it didn’t seem like it could get any worse.
In truth most would welcome Farhad Moshiri’s hierarchy having their licence removed to do most things at the club given how the Toffees seem to lurch from one crisis to another with increasing frequency.
But a year ago there was confidence that their actions were being kept in check by the Premier League, who have since done a 180 degree turn and shown the exact opposite.
So a further authority above them could go distinctly either way, since, just as with the arrival of VAR, something which is theoretically a positive is only as good as those in charge of it.
Barrett-Baxendale going quiet at a choice time will come as no surprise, given none of the board have much to say publicly until it comes time to turn fire on the fans.
But can football clubs be trusted to run themselves in a responsible manner? In the case of Everton, evidently not.
Can the league be trusted to successfully keep things in order at its member clubs? Again, in the case of Everton, evidently not.
But will a regulator solve those issues or create new ones of its own? For now that is not clear.