PL Profit and Sustainability Rules, some window dressing

I’m not buying the sense of aggrievement from Everton over their 10-point deduction for failing FA Premier League Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).  It is the harshest penalty yet given out by the League and puts Everton in the relegation zone, but they are just two points from safety and in sufficiently good form to escape the drop.  The deduction should be no more than window dressing.

Having set the bar with Everton for an honestly declared breach of spending rules, more egregious matters lie ahead for the League, where allegations of covert action to subvert their rules have been levelled against Manchester City and Chelsea.

Football (in some places) is finally waking up to the realities of financial responsibility and rule breaking.  Uefa pioneered this with their 14-year-old Financial Sustainability rules (more on this later in the week).  The European body have carried the burden on this with little help from domestic leagues, leadership from England should encourage others.

I cannot see this ever happening in Scotland.  Our top clubs are already subject to Uefa rules, which in their new form were significantly designed by Celtic, while mid-table clubs and downward see their incomes vary wildly.  It would be difficult to design a set of rules that encourages responsible behaviour at clubs which might only turnover a couple of million pounds a year.

The problem in Scotland is with one club operating near the summit which is now dependent on European income.  You would rather it was an arms-distance organisation in Europe curtailing their spending than someone at Hampden.  More on them before the weekend.