On Thursday, it was announced that Leicester City’s leadership has decided to appeal the 6-point deduction sanctioned by the Premier League and the EFL for the breach (of around £20m) of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR). The Premier League have simultaneously appealed the ruling and are reportedly seeking a further one-point deduction for the charge of not handing in figures on time.
The period in question stretches from the season we reached the Europa Conference League semi-final in 2022, the Premier League relegation in 2023 and the now arguably illegitimate promotion in 2024. Had the club not fought this so vehemently, the penalty would have been applied last season (the season after the offence as the rules state), where it would have been irrelevant during a season where we were miles from safety anyway.
Now in the Championship, the deduction took us to the precipice of the relegation zone, which of course we’ve now dropped into. There are just 14 games left.
When the club discovered the outcome of a legal process 18 months in the making a fortnight ago, the universal consensus was that the deduction was lenient at best and astoundingly low at worst considering what it could have been, and indeed what the Premier League were reportedly seeking.
There was a palpable sense of relief, mixed in with the anger that it happened at all (for the first time in the club’s 142-year history) among the fan base. There’s been a lot that Leicester fans have disagreed about over the past few years, but having this deduction (‘only’ minus 6) at this time (February) was by and large met with an understanding that a line could be drawn under this sorry period and focus placed solely on the difficult task of appointing a new manager and avoiding relegation (again).
However, anyone who read the club’s statement should have known that they were not prepared to let it lie.
“While the commission’s findings significantly reduced the unprecedented scale of the sanction originally sought by the Premier League, the recommendation remains disproportionate and does not adequately reflect the mitigating factors presented, the importance of which cannot be overstated given the potential impact on our sporting ambitions this season.”
It’s not entirely clear what those mitigating factors are? Do they mean having an absent owner who isn’t aware of what’s going on? Is simply having Jon Rudkin still on the payroll enough of a punishment in itself? Who knows?
What is clear is that we broke the rules. We were allowed PSR losses, once add-backs such as infrastructure and the women’s team were included, of around £83m over the three-year period. We exceeded this by around £20m.
The total losses in the first two years of the reporting period were astonishing – In the 2022-23 ‘relegation’ accounts, we confirmed an £89.7m loss, while in the 12 months up to May 2022, we lost a club-record £92.5m despite playing in Europe (both before PSR add-backs). The wage bill was 114% of income.
During those first two years, we were indeed chasing the dream and then unexpectedly (and ludicrously) relegated. While this came as a shock to the club and its bottom line, there were many bad decisions taken during this period that exacerbated the situation and baked in the losses.
What was needed was an internal review during the Summer of 2023 (?!) Had said review been fit for purpose, it would have identified how much money was available to spend before signing the likes of Harry Winks and Conor Coady, who cost a combined £17m and were reportedly on ‘Premier League wages’.
Despite a significant reduction in losses to £19.4m during the promotion season, we were still around £20m over the £83m rolling loss of what was allowed for PSR. Note that this would have been £50m over had the sale of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall not gone through on the final day of the accounting period.
While there is legitimacy to the argument of other teams flouting the rules and ‘getting away with it’, what it clear is that we broke them. We’d already broken them once for the 2021-24 accounting period but avoided a charge on a technicality (the technicality being that, despite breaking them, we got relegated and the Premier League couldn’t apply the charge to an EFL team). By breaking them again a year later (after the rules were changed) in a desperate attempt to be promoted, we left ourselves wide open to the punishment we’ve just received.
Despite the lengthy statement a fortnight ago lamenting the deduction, the club (as yet) hasn’t offered any explanation as to why they are appealing or what they hope to achieve. This sort of thing is usually tied up in ‘legal reasons’, so we won’t speculate as to the why.
However, there is one thing that is missing from the entire period.
A quick search of the word sorry brings up three meanings:
- Feeling sad or distressed through sympathy with someone else’s misfortune
- Feeling regret or penitence
- In a poor or pitiful state
There’s been no sign of 1 or 2, but we definitely are 3.
Once the appeal is done and it’s finally over, maybe the club’s communications team will produce something? Maybe Aiyawatt will record another interview? Jon Rudkin could grab the mic at half-time? Who knows… but we won’t hold our breath.
As a football fan, you have to accept there will be ups and downs. Leicester City is more of a rollercoaster than any other team. The decline on the pitch – results, performances, quality of player – really hurts and the sense of having it all and ‘throwing it away’ really stings in the present.
But such is life – results, players, managers come and go and hopefully at some point we’ll start an upward trajectory again. What happens on the pitch I can deal with, even if that means relegation to League One. Regardless of what’s happening off the pitch, I’ll be giving all the support I can over the next 10 weeks to Gary Rowett and the team on it.
However, I fear that the lasting damage of this horrible period will be how I view the ‘institution’ of Leicester City Football Club. The current ownership and board, through their arrogance and refusal to accept any responsibility of the financial issues and their consequences on the pitch, are destroying something I used to feel proud of.
In the eyes of the authorities and the wider football public, we’re no longer a rule-abiding club. No longer an example to others of how to achieve success. Frankly, on and off the pitch, we’ve become a bit of an embarrassment. As much as the club wants to play hard done by, there’s no one to blame but themselves and it’s the fans that suffer as a result.
Has the point of potential redemption passed? Is a complete change of ownership and board needed to allow the club, and my love for it, to heal? Probably. But in the meantime, acknowledgement of what’s happened would be a start.
The Fosse Way 