Simply put the case should be shot down for lack of standing. If you somehow managed to perform worse than an Everton side that has been pissing money away on signings, firing managers annually, and consistently playing some of the worst football in the Premier League, you have nobody to blame but yourself.

As an Everton fan, I’m sorry your team got relegated but trying to sue us as the cause of said relegation is grasping at straws for an excuse that deflects blame away from your club. It also sets a very annoying and stupid precedent that could applied not just to cases of relegation, but any other instance where there is a perceived financial loss as a result of another club. Does Arsenal have standing to sue City (if that investigation ever yields results) for losing out on title revenue last season as a result of City’s advantaged financial position? It becomes a can of worms.

The fact of the matter is that the actions of Everton Football Club’s first team are in no way connected these financial breaches, that fault rests at the board/executive level. All this did to the first team is put us at an even greater disadvantage from a footballing perspective. We were in the midst of a horrid string of form last season and could do zero business in January because that’d mean overspending. Did not signing a striker leaving us with Neal Maupay, Ellis Simms, and an injured DCL give us a competitive advantage? Did constantly having protests against our own board to the point where they didn’t even bother showing up to the matches give us an advantage? No!

Footballing punishments should not be handed out for something that didn’t even give a footballing advantage. And as such, any attempt to sue over a purely footballing matter that is disconnected from the financial matters is pure hogwash.