Dele

[Shogun]

Don’t recall anything about the Prem saying we couldn’t play him ? Remember him and his family going into hiding after the allegations were made. Think the strongest argument we have with Sigurdson is that we continued to pay him out of concern for his mental health, Everton that is.

Think someone posted as part of the report from the independent panel but I could be wrong

[Gash]

Some of our arguments don’t cut it unfortunately.

Richy was never worth £80m and he’s proved himself to be quite limited at a higher level.

I doubt we would have got any sort of fee for Sigurdsson and the fact we didn’t have to pay him probably worked in our favour.

Covid impacted everyone.

The USM sponsorship was unfortunate but that’s a whole can a worms we probably want to keep out of the courts.

That’s not saying this punishment is in any way justified though.

I think I'm right in saying we put in one of the highest, if not the highest Covid losses of any club, like double what most clubs put in. Villa put in something like £56m losses and Arsenal £86m, I'm sure we threw in about £170m of which £103m was for the 2020-21 financial year, it was this figure that first got people asking what was going on at Everton. We cooked the books with Covid and we were happily cooking the books with USM, Usmanov, new ground naming rights etc.

As you say the punishment doesn't fit the crime but we've been well dodgy with some of the finances. We were basically just a well placed washing machine for Usmanov's money fronted by his accountant. All club's will be doing their own bit "working the figures" it's just we were neither subtle nor very good at it. I get that people are annoyed at the punishment, I think we all are and even people outside the club agree it's extremely harsh but at the same time we need to calm down a little bit of the outrage and self pity, if we're honest we could all see for a long time that all was not honest and above board at the club but most happily went along with it.

[Kerryblueboy]

Can’t be any more dodgy than being sponsored by a corrupt country

[Escalator]

Some of our arguments don’t cut it unfortunately.

Richy was never worth £80m and he’s proved himself to be quite limited at a higher level.

I doubt we would have got any sort of fee for Sigurdsson and the fact we didn’t have to pay him probably worked in our favour.

Covid impacted everyone.

The USM sponsorship was unfortunate but that’s a whole can a worms we probably want to keep out of the courts.

That’s not saying this punishment is in any way justified though.

I think I'm right in saying we put in one of the highest, if not the highest Covid losses of any club, like double what most clubs put in. Villa put in something like £56m losses and Arsenal £86m, I'm sure we threw in about £170m of which £103m was for the 2020-21 financial year, it was this figure that first got people asking what was going on at Everton. We cooked the books with Covid and we were happily cooking the books with USM, Usmanov, new ground naming rights etc.

As you say the punishment doesn't fit the crime but we've been well dodgy with some of the finances. We were basically just a well placed washing machine for Usmanov's money fronted by his accountant. All club's will be doing their own bit "working the figures" it's just we were neither subtle nor very good at it. I get that people are annoyed at the punishment, I think we all are and even people outside the club agree it's extremely harsh but at the same time we need to calm down a little bit of the outrage and self pity, if we're honest we could all see for a long time that all was not honest and above board at the club but most happily went along with it.

That’s a great post, we should calm down and face the appal in an adult manner, I won’t be holding anything up on Sunday, it’s futile, I know the guys to my front, my rear, my right and my left , all st holders and can guarantee they won’t hold anything up.

[777Kidnappings]

Some of our arguments don’t cut it unfortunately.

Richy was never worth £80m and he’s proved himself to be quite limited at a higher level.

I doubt we would have got any sort of fee for Sigurdsson and the fact we didn’t have to pay him probably worked in our favour.

Covid impacted everyone.

The USM sponsorship was unfortunate but that’s a whole can a worms we probably want to keep out of the courts.

That’s not saying this punishment is in any way justified though.

We did pay sigurdsson didn't we.

[blueToffee]

This thread somehow meandered into the other FFP one.

There have clearly been issues the way we went about our accounting and we did put ourselves in a stupid position. I do think that we've been trying to right the ship, and work with the PL, but as stated our clumsy efforts to improve the club helped put us in the spotlight which hasn't helped us.

I still come down on the side of we can't just roll over on this punishment though. I do think some fan reaction is justified, to what extent is debatable I suppose. It's extremely hard to ignore the double standards and the reasons FFP exist in the first place. It's all to the benefit of those at the top of the pyramid who were all too keen to breakaway.

[NickNack]

Some of our arguments don’t cut it unfortunately.

Richy was never worth £80m and he’s proved himself to be quite limited at a higher level.

I doubt we would have got any sort of fee for Sigurdsson and the fact we didn’t have to pay him probably worked in our favour.

Covid impacted everyone.

The USM sponsorship was unfortunate but that’s a whole can a worms we probably want to keep out of the courts.

That’s not saying this punishment is in any way justified though.

We did pay sigurdsson didn't we.

Pretty sure we’d have had to - we suspended him when he hadn’t been found guilty of anything.

[Toddacelli]

This thread somehow meandered into the other FFP one.

There have clearly been issues the way we went about our accounting and we did put ourselves in a stupid position. I do think that we've been trying to right the ship, and work with the PL, but as stated our clumsy efforts to improve the club helped put us in the spotlight which hasn't helped us.

I still come down on the side of we can't just roll over on this punishment though. I do think some fan reaction is justified, to what extent is debatable I suppose. It's extremely hard to ignore the double standards and the reasons FFP exist in the first place. It's all to the benefit of those at the top of the pyramid who were all too keen to breakaway.

I agree. Even though @TheRam points out, quite rightly, how distasteful it was to go along with dirty, oligarch cash, the point here is that we are the only ones being punished and in an unjust manner.

It’s not that we are claiming innocence of corruption, it is that we want a level playing field and want to see fair play for all of those engaged in corruption.

[Cods]

We're still somewhat of a threat to the ruling 6, despite our current predicament. No club will do us any favours, not those above us, and certainly not those below.

-10 helps their plight.

[777Kidnappings]

We're still somewhat of a threat to the ruling 6, despite our current predicament. No club will do us any favours, not those above us, and certainly not those below.

-10 helps their plight.

Not sure it does. City Chelsea and Newcastle want it scraped and the others what them 3 stopped. All the top clubs fans support us because of their own self serving reasons. Liverpool utd and arsenal will all win titles if City are striped

[Cods]

We're still somewhat of a threat to the ruling 6, despite our current predicament. No club will do us any favours, not those above us, and certainly not those below.

-10 helps their plight.

Not sure it does. City Chelsea and Newcastle want it scraped and the others what them 3 stopped. All the top clubs fans support us because of their own self serving reasons. Liverpool utd and arsenal will all win titles if City are striped

Well yes, but that's based upon the self-interested fans actually believing that these punishments will be metered out proportionally, when really, we and the owners of those clubs in question all know they won't.

It'd be a bit sad and hollow to be banking on another team retrospectively banned years later, due to illegalities. Like winning the Covid-hit league without crowds, very plastic. Apt.

[Cods]

Can’t be any more dodgy than being sponsored by a corrupt country

Trying to count on one hand any that aren't, TBH.

[Juanito]

Just seen that Isco, who has not played between 2020 and 2023, was severely overweight, has now played 13 straight games for Betis and been man of the match in all of them. There is hope yet.

[Cods]

*like*

[bigmanbob]

We all know if we'd have signed him he'd still be overweight, had one shot on target and now be playing in Tanzania