On November 16 2023, fans of Everton FC may have been reasonably satisfied about how the football season was shaping up. They were 14th in the English Premier League, and had recently recorded wins against West Ham and Crystal Palace.
Then on November 17 everything changed. The club were docked ten points for breaching the league’s “profitability and sustainability” rules, pushing them down to 19th place and into the relegation zone.
The rules that Everton broke are designed to force clubs into being financially sustainable businesses, by allowing them to build up footballing losses (separate to spending on things like infrastructure or community projects) of no more than £105 million over a three-year period.
