Yes, sign of judgement, yes
Sign of judgement, yes
Sign of judgement time ain’t long
Yes, sign of judgement, yes
Sign of judgement, yes
Sign of judgement time ain’t long
Dave Alvin: Sign of Judgement (Songwriter Kid Prince Moore)
It’s mission accomplished. The final end game of the football club assassin known as Farhad Moshiri has reached its conclusion. Moshiri dealt the dead man’s hand of aces and eights and the independent commission set up to rule on the Premier League verse Everton Football Club “Rumpole of the Baily cliff hanger” administered the coup de grace, hitting the toffees with a ten point penalty. Moshiri’s magic trick sees the blues fall from 14th to 19th in the blink of Satan’s eye. His high living finally reaching its conclusion.
My life is just an old routine
Every day the same damn thing
Hell, I can’t even tell if I’m alive
I tell you, the high cost of livin’
Ain’t nothing like the cost of livin’ high
I tell you, the high cost of livin’
Ain’t nothing like the cost of livin’ high
Jamey Johnson: High cost of Living (Jamey Johnson / James T. Slater)
PART ONE: WHERE’S HENRY WHEN YOU NEED HIM
(Now that is an easy film to guess)
Let’s have a look at the “independent panel’s” judgement. I read the forty one page document and my God “let’s just say it’s not a page turner! And that’s not counting the words I had to look up the meaning of in a dictionary!!” Good cure if you are finding it hard to get to sleep, I will give it that.
Remember when it was first announced back in March that the Premier League would be charging Everton with breaking Profit and Sustainability (P and S) rules. The club came out all bullish:
“The Club strongly contests the allegation of non-compliance and together with its independent team of experts is entirely confident that it remains compliant with all financial rules and regulations.
Everton is prepared to robustly defend its position to the commission. The Club has, over several years, provided information to the Premier League in an open and transparent manner and has consciously chosen to act with the utmost good faith at all times.”
https://www.evertonfc.com/news/3120793/club-statement
Strange that the three stooges all resigned from the board just a few weeks later. Did they see what was coming! Be that as it may, when we get the final judgement, bullish Everton had turned from a roaring lion to a dormouse. Squeaking “sorry” and admitting the club had broken P and S rules. Consequently, the blues were found guilty and ruled to have breached the P and S rules to the tune of £19.5 million.
When they put them handcuffs on me, Lord how I fought to resist
But agent clamped ’em tighter, ’til that metal bit into my wrist
They took my belt and my billfold, my fingerprints, and the profile of my face
And then they locked away the only hell my mama ever ever raised
John Paycheck: The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised
(Songwriters Bobby Borches, Wayne Kemp, Mack Vickery)
The mitigating circumstances put up by the club in its defence for breaking the P and S rules are weak in my opinion, and I’m no legal or financial expert, you can rest assured on that front! Both my son’s maths homework use to stump me. And that was when they were in Primary school!
The Youth Development / Transfer Levy: (64-70)
The argument which the club put forward here, (I leave it to readers to look up), really was clutching at straws, and quite underhand in my opinion. The club basically trying to pull a fast one
The Pre Planning Stadium (71- 81).
People need to read for themselves the paragraphs on this, and believe me it will take more than one read to get your head around it. Unless you understand finances like the always excellent The Esk https://theesk.org/ or the Swizz Ramble https://swissramble.substack.com/ It all centres around interest payments on the stadium. I’m no legal eagle but the panel ruled in favour of the Premier League and from reading the judgement it seems the Premier League had a case. Maybe preparatory work on Bramley Moore Dock, should have waited until planning permission was actually granted. But then again, the club did go ahead with building the stadium without all the finances secured, so this pre planning imbroglio is no surprise. Bramley Moore Dock always had the possibility of biting the club at some stage, and it finally has.
Player X: 120-122. He who shall not be named!
“Everton maintains that it is entitled to credit for not pursuing an economically viable claim against Player X. Despite the fact that it had received advice from solicitors and from leading counsel that the claim could be pursued it chose not to bring proceedings. Its case is that that decision was made out of concern for the player’s psychological wellbeing. “
Well, there we have it. After the arrest of Player X, he could not be sold, so the club potentially lost out on any transfer. But we then see the club had an economic claim against Player X. In case you have not realised it Everton, we are not a charity but a football club. The club had been advised it had an economic case against X but chose not to pursue it, over the welfare for poor Player X. Just !!!! Off! Sums up everything about the club, soft as shit. No one to blame here, but the club itself for not pursuing a case against player X.
Ukraine (123-125)
First of all, it is horrible that the club is mixed up in a dirty senseless war led by two clowns on either side who should be stuck in a rocket together and blasted off to the moon, never to be seen again. You can stick Barett-Baxendale, Ingles, Sharp and Moshiri in the rocket as well! In fact lets make it Pluto, the moon is deffo not far enough!
That said unexpected catastrophes can happen to business and football clubs. It is just bad luck if said business or club find themselves in such a situation.
Woke a dog from a running dream
And that’s bad luck (bad luck)
Ate a black fly in the cream
And that’s bad luck (bad, bad luck)
Chipped my tooth on an engagement ring
That’s bad luck (bad luck)
Could have stopped any one of these things
But that would have been bad luck
Neko Case: Bad Luck (Neko Case / Paul Rigby)
I remember the 1994 awful led Hutu genocide in Rwanda. The chair of Leyton Orient at the time, Tony Wood made his money from coffee plantations in Rwanda. This was wiped out more or less overnight and put the O’s in peril. I was living in London at the time this happened. Actually, been to a few Orient games. Great club.
Thankfully the O’s got through the problems caused by awful Rwanda genocide and the club carried on. (Although compared to the massacres that happened it pales into insignificance). But shit happens sometimes Everton. I just wish what happened concerning the toffees did not include war and death. To many cushy deals with Uncle Alisha, God knows how much Usmanov was involved in the club. More dirt will come out on this one day I would guess. But just like the Leyton Orient example, Ukraine is the same, it is basically tough luck. Putting your eggs in one Usmanov basket. or any one basket always has a chance of going belly up. And just the toffees luck, it did.
Impact on Covid to Player Sales (126-130)
Did the club really think they could use this as a mitigating circumstance. I mean where the toffees the only club affected by Covid!! I don’t think so! Claiming the club could not sell players because of a downturn in the transfer market is a bit pathetic. It would have been the same for other clubs.
If the above is the best the club could come up with as mitigating circumstances it’s no wonder the Premier League won the case in my view.
The report also says
In October 2019 Everton produced a Sustainable Business Plan. The plan projected that the club would regularly finish in the top eight clubs of the Premier League, and that the new stadium would be constructed. It 8 recognised the significant recent expenditure on players but projected both a reduced need to purchase new players coupled with revenue generated from the sale of existing players. This is what Mr Moshiri described as being the normal investment cycle.
Sums it up really. The clowns who were running the club to rack and ruin expected to finish regularly in the top eight.!!! Dream On
“Higher and higher blues.”
You know your love (your love keeps lifting me)
Keep on lifting (love keeps lifting me)
Higher (lifting me)
Higher and higher (higher)
I said your love (your love keeps lifting me)
Keep on (love keeps lifting me)
Lifting me (lifting me)
Higher and higher (higher)
Listen
Jackie Wilson: Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher
(Songwriters Gary Jackson, Raynard Miner, Carl Smith)
Best of all though is 137 where it says:
“Everton’s understandable desire to improve its on-pitch performance (to replace the non-existent mid field, as Mr Moshiri put it in evidence) led it to take chances with its PSR position: those chances resulted in it exceeding the £105 million threshold by £19.5 million.”
Talk about giving them enough rope! What an absolute idiot. And he was supposed to be giving evidence for the club’s defence!!
“Farhad how did you ever become a billionaire? The world neds to know.”
I’ve never been a religious man
I never went to church as a kid
well this here d*** mess that I got myself in
now i kinda wish that I did
I got arrested when i was 18
Me and a few of my friends
They all got off but I didn’t win
I’ll never be a free man again
Everton Football Club are proved guilty.
“Sorry your honour”
The question though is, “Does the punishment fit the crime.? Is a ten point deduction harsh. Damn right it is. It is basically nothing more than the Premier League acting tough. Showing it has claws
“No need for an independent regulator, as we can govern ourselfs. Look what we have done with Everton.”
It was even leaked to the media that the Premier League was pushing for a twelve point deduction. So, when the ten point deduction was announced it showed the panel was independent by applying a smaller penalty than the Premier League wanted. Well, a quick look into the panel puts that slightly in doubt. Nick Igoe a man who was party to West Ham United breaking the rules in the Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano transfers sat on the panel. How that is possible is baffling. Suppose you could argue he was on the panel as he was an expert in rule breaking!!
But the biggest question is the super league breakaway bandits. How come this lot who wanted to break away and join a European super League all got a fine of around £3.5 million each. Yet Everton get a ten point deduction. I await the answer, but won’t hold my breath Mr Masters.
One thing to come out of this whole mess is a precedent has now been set for any club found to have broken P and S rules. If its ten points for £19.5 million, then that’s the gold standard from now on.
Everton could actually accept the ten point deduction and still stay up in my opinion, and I’m one of one dimensional Sean’s Dyche’s biggest critics. The Premier League this season is one of the weakest it has ever been. Even with the deduction the blues are just two points from safety.
It is the threat of being sued by other clubs which is still swirling round, which is the danger.
Compensation claims
Published alongside the commission’s judgement on Friday was a separate legal ruling that was made in May of this year. Leeds United, Burnley, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and Southampton were among the interested parties with each club exploring the possibility of seeking compensation should Everton be found guilty of breaching the profit and sustainability rules. The High Court ruling handed down by David Phillips, KC, made clear those clubs could not be an active part of the hearing that was to decide whether or not Everton had committed a breach. He did rule that should Everton be guilty, those clubs could try to seek compensation, finding: “I am satisfied that the applicant clubs have potential claims for compensation.”
If this actually happens (clubs have twenty eight day to put in a claim against the toffees), and Everton lose the case, it would be one more problem to add to the shit show. And who knows what clubs, if any would win compensation. Or how much that compensation would be? So, the chosen step to appeal the judgement is a prudent move. Do I think the toffees will win the appeal, no I don’t. Hell, the club was found guilty simple as. But maybe a reduction in the ten points might be achieved.
“The Club has already communicated its intention to appeal the decision to the Premier League. The appeal process will now commence and the Club’s case will be heard by an Appeal Board appointed pursuant to the Premier League’s rules in due course.”
https://www.evertonfc.com/news/3788440/club-statement
One thing that needs to happen is the appeal needs to be sorted as quickly as possible. In at best a few months. It is unfair not only on the blues, but teams around them if it drags on and the leagues table then another drastic change in April/May time. This cannot be allowed to happen.
PART TWO: THE REAL CRIMINALS
It’s been a long time since I’ve been spoken to you
Was it the right time?
Your current troubles and you know they’ll get much worse
I hope you know how much I enjoyed them
You’re a pig of a person, there’s a justice in this world
Hey, how about this?
Your lack of conscience and your lack of morality
Well, more and more people know all about it
Lou Reed: Dirt
The banners will be all around Goodison Park attacking the Premier League as the season rolls on. But let’s get this straight the Premier League is a real target no question. But there ia another target which should never be forgotten. That target is the ex board members, better known as the headlock Princess, the Piggy Bank financial wizard, and for god’s sake football brain box!! “Yeah, bet he is”.
Denise Barett-Baxendale, Grant Ingles and Graham Sharp and above all the great Satan Farhad Moshiri. Here are just a few of these “four horsemen of the apocalypse” crimes:
Took the club to the edge of the Championship in the last two seasons.
Produced appalling accounts year on year.
Allowed the signing of rubbish players season after season.
Appointed one ridiculous manager after another.
Claimed they had ring fenced BMD at £500 million. Complete crap. The price has now ballooned to £750 million and counting.
Allowed the start of the BMD project with no full financial plan or strategy of where the finances would come from.
Started a civil war, telling lies and half truths about threats and headlock ninjas.
Led the club so badly it was charged and found guilty of breaking the Premier League Profit and Sustainability rules.
A board that jumped ship and resigned, scurrying off under their rocks, weeks after the club was charged.
Finally, these people have steered the great institution known as Everton Football Club into a position where it was docked tens points. The disgrace of Everton Football Club being docked ten points, just let that sink in!
(There is plenty more to lay at the door of these buffoons if I wanted to think on it a bit more).
Overseeing all this is the biggest cancer of all, the tax haven buffoon, the virus, the football club assassin. A man who saw the club as a play thing, and boy did he play with it. I always said he was the biggest problem at the club. But the mad fixation on Bill Kenwright, not here now to face the music, blinded people to Moshiri.I I argued against the letters from the NSNOW campaign calling for Moshiri to smell the coffee and wake up. How his financial commitment was aligned with the supporters. How what he wanted is what the supporters wanted. I argued that this was madness. I always said he was the biggest problem at the club, but was mainly lone voice. One example of many for you:
Moshiri was / is a man who never cared about the club. It was just a vanity project, a play thing for him and his ego. A man who has just one objective now, to get out of the club he has destroyed as quickly as possible. Its mission accomplished for this assassin.
The big question from this whole mess is:
Why where Everton Football Club called to an independent inquiry in the first place?
The answer, Moshiri, Barett-axendale, Ingles and Sharp. These are the people you should go after Premier League. This bunch of incompetent clowns, not the club and all the good people who work there, not the supporters, not the team. The only people guilty of anything are those four “riders of the apocalypse”, they are to blame for the mess, nobody else.
I would add I think the interim Chief Executive Colin Chong, needs removing, after his appalling interview on part 10 of the Everton: Nothing Will Be the Same podcast. If you have not listened to it, you really should. In the episode he says criticism of the board was “unnecessary and inaccurate”. He says they worked “tirelessly” and “never stopped running the club” even when they could not go to Goodison because of the “threats”. Oh yes, he fetches all that up again and proceeds to throw the supporters under the bus. Is this the person who we should have as interim CEO. Someone who thought the board were doing a good job and the critics of the disasterous board where wrong.. Not in my eyes. Not after that podcast interview. The man is not fit to be interim CEO.
But back to the issue of the criminals. Kenwright should have nothing named after him at Bramley Moore Dock. Ingles, Sharp (I don’t care what he did as a player), and Barett-Baxendale should have it made clear to them, they are never wanted near Goodison Park or Bramley Moor Dock. They are persona non grata, and will be for ever and a day. As Lou sang:
Your lack of conscience and your lack of morality
Well, more and more people know all about it
Your just Dirt
As for the biggest cancer of all Moshiri, nothing can be worse than him. Not even 777. (I don’t want them, but can they be worse than Moshiri, hell no one could be).
As the club gears up for an appeal and the supporter’s campaign about corruption at the Premier League. Never ever forget the real criminals in this:
Barrett-Baxendale Sharp, Ingles and above all the great Satan Moshiri.
The four of them are accused and proven to be GUILTY for the ten point deduction and the total mess they have made of the club during Moshiri’s horrendous reign.
All four are wanted for crimes against Everton Football Club.
As for the supporters, when it’s a war nobody does it better.
“LAW MAKERS, LAW BREAKERS, LET US FIGHT THEM ALL, WHY NOT“
Kerr Avon: Blakes 7
(if you have not watched My Name on Netflix, you really are missing out)
Up The Toffees
TOFFEE FOR TEA 
Absolutely agree with your opinion on Moshiri. Have done since he came into the club. An incompetent weak liar of an individual being controlled by a puppet master. At first i thought he was corrupt and using the club for money laundering via a new ground now i realise he was probably just completely incompetent. The decision to appoint benitez was his and his alone ( although one suspects Usmanov too ).All the other directors warned against it. I hold him completely responsible for what has happened to our club. Still suspect there was a corruption element too.
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Agree. Sooner or later more will come out
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