A Premier League commission has ordered Everton to pay Burnley £35 million in compensation — £26 million in damages and £9 million in interest — ruling that Everton's PSR breach cost Burnley their top-flight status.
Everton have filed an immediate appeal, describing the ruling as "fundamentally flawed in both law and fact" and vowing to contest it "robustly and thoroughly."
The case centres on the 2021-22 Premier League season, when Burnley were relegated in 18th place. Everton finished 16th — four points above the drop zone — and were later found to have breached profit and sustainability regulations across the three-year period to that season by £19.5 million. The original punishment of a 10-point deduction was applied in November 2023, later reduced to six points on appeal in February 2024.
Burnley argued that had those six points been deducted during the 2021-22 season itself, Everton would have been relegated instead and the Clarets would have survived. The commission agreed.
Both clubs presented expert evidence to simulate the impact of the overspend on Everton's points total. The commission found Burnley's modelling — which projected a gain of between 3.85 and 7.13 points for Everton — "more compelling," and concluded that "on the balance of probabilities, Everton's breach of the PSR caused Burnley to be relegated."
Everton's statement was unsparing.
"Everton Football Club is surprised and angered by the decision. Everton has appealed the decision and is clear in its belief the ruling is fundamentally flawed in both law and fact. The club does not recognise the findings of the panel in determining Burnley's relegation from the Premier League in May 2022 was caused by a sporting advantage gained by Everton due to a breach of Profit and Sustainability Rules, for which a substantive sporting sanction has already been received."
The club took particular aim at the broader implications of the ruling.
"This ruling sets a dangerous and unworkable precedent for English football, given it is constructed on a principle that a club can be in breach of financial rules at any point in a financial year."
The Press Association reports that Everton's hierarchy were "astonished" by the decision, with senior figures at Goodison Park believing the ruling would have been "catastrophic" had the club not stabilised its finances through The Friedkin Group's takeover in December 2024.
The payment would not, however, affect Everton's PSR accounts for the current accounting period.
Whether the appeal succeeds will determine whether this remains an isolated case or opens the door to similar claims from other clubs who believe they were disadvantaged by financial irregularities during the same era.
The precedent is already set. The consequences of that fact are still unfolding.