The former Cabinet minister and Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has accused the Premier League of an “abuse of process” and “regulatory malpractice” for deducting Everton 10 points.
Burnham, a season-ticket holder at Goodison Park, has written an open letter to the Premier League chairwoman Alisson Brittain in which he said there had not been a fair process.
Everton were deemed to have breached Profit and Sustainability Rules by an independent commission, who deemed they had losses of £124.5m over three years - £19.5m over the permitted threshold.
But Burnham, a former Secretary of State for Health, was critical of the Premier League for adopting a sanctions policy in August, after Everton had been charged and before their case was heard.
“The fact that the Premier League sought to introduce a new sanctions policy in the middle of this process amounts, in my view, to an abuse of process,” he wrote.
Everton were handed a 10-point deduction for breaching the financial fair play regulations— (Getty Images)
“It could be argued that the Premier League handing a new penalty regime to the commission in this way is akin to the Government handing new sentencing guidelines to a judge in the middle of a trial. Any right-minded person would see that as an inappropriate attempt to influence the process.”
Everton have announced plans to appeal against the verdict, which they have called “wholly unjust”.
And Burnham added: “The question in this situation is, has there been a fair process? Having taken my time to study the judgement and speak to a lot of people this week I have concluded that there has not been a fair process. There has been a highly flawed process and I would go as far as to say there has been an abuse of process. And that abuse of process concerns the guideline and framework that was put together in August and submitted to the independent commission.
“You cannot, in an ongoing case, create a new policy in the middle of the case and then introduce it towards the end of it. It is what people would call regulatory malpractice. You end up with a situation here where a harsh penalty has been handed out, which is what the Premier League wanted, where there is no policy basis for that penalty.
“Therefore how can an appeal be anything other than an arbitrary process as well given there is no policy basis? As far as I can see the process is null and void. It has been invalidated by the actions of the Premier League in seeking to introduce a framework at the later stages of the process and it would appear to have had some impact on the independent commission.”
