Everton’s appeal success has drawn widespread intrigue, with some seeing it as the correction of injustice, whilst others feeling that the Toffees have escaped fair punishment for their crimes.
Whilst six points still remain, as a reminder that they did flout the rules, it is widely agreed that the initial ten-point deduction was far too harsh given the manner of the alleged breach.
Fortunately, KC Laurence Rabinowitz managed to prove this, and will likely have to do so again later in the season.
However, the manner in which this barrister professed Everton’s innocence has left Simon Jordan baffled.
What Simon Jordan said about Everton’s appeal success
Speaking live on talkSPORT (27/02, 10:06 am), Jordan was left with plenty of questions for the Premier League.
He would note: ’If you remember about six weeks ago I said that I thought Everton would get reduced four points then perhaps get given them back on their second offence. So look, the adjudication was the adjudication and we can pull it to pieces, we can look at perhaps Everton’s representation in the first hearing and say maybe you should have done a better job.
‘We can look at the fact that in every adjudication, whether it’s in a court of law or with an appeal process, has an element of subjectivity to it. So the interpretation, it’s not the Premier League, the independent commission are the people who are supposed to adjudicate.
‘So with that in mind, they presented nine arguments Everton’s KC, they got defeated on seven of them and two of them came up with an outcome. And one of them is relatively ridiculous.
‘If you think about the idea where the richest league in the world has to turn to the poor, sick man of football, which is the football league, and get some kind of steer from them about how points should be deducted from their team is rather ludicrous.
‘And then of course the subjectivity of whether someone’s being entirely honest with you. Their argument was that Everton was being less than frank. Now that’s very subjective.’
The Premier League has created more questions than answers
Whilst the Premier League have set a precedent with this ruling, and a benchmark with which to measure all future punishments, it has hardly cemented statutes that continue to be debated today.
After all, as Jordan notes, the desperation with which they have scrambled for justification of their actions has been embarrassing, and severely weakened their standing.
Not only that, but the fact that they are now going to have to try Nottingham Forest against these same flawed statutes only reinforces their incompetence.
By trying to profess their strength and ability to govern without any outside council, instead they have arguably signed their own death warrant, set to be further lambasted given all the questions that will arise following such a decision.
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