'It isn't fair' - Football finance expert reveals worrying concern about Everton's appeal of points deduction

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has claimed Everton may not hear the results of their proposed appeal until after the Premier League has finished.

Everton have been penalised for a second time this season by the Premier League after being found guilty of breaching profit and sustainability rules once again. The club have had two points taken off which has seen them fall one place in the table to 16th - and they sit just two points ahead of Luton Town in 18th.

An appeal will be lodged by the club and part of their statement heavily refuted the PL’s claims that there is a real inconsistency in their decisions so far. "Everton remains committed to working collaboratively with the league on all matters relating to PSR but is extremely concerned by the inconsistency of different commissions in respect to point deductions applied."

Speaking to talkSPORT, Maguire broke down the legal ramifications of Everton’s points deduction and claimed that the result of an appeal may not arrive until after the end of the league season due to Nottingham Forest needing to hear their appeal first. “We tend to have a cab rank approach and the next cab on the rank is the Forest appeal. They need time to put that together and wait for the judgement to come through and then on the back of that Everton’s appeal will come after that.

“We could be looking at the 23rd/24th of May before we get the judgement of the Everton appeal which, by then, the final matches of the season will have been played and worst case scenario we don’t know who has been relegated.

“The Premier League is very keen to say the integrity of the competition is paramount. It isn’t fair on Everton, it’s not fair on Luton, or Forest who are going into the end of the season not knowing if a draw will be enough or they need to go all out for a victory; it destroys the things which we love about football which is that element of certainty you get from 90 minutes.”