The Premier League has insisted Everton would not have known the verdict of their second points deduction before their game against Burnley on 6 April, according to Kieran Maguire.
Speaking on The Price of Football podcast on Thursday (11 April), the football finance expert revealed that he was contacted by someone last week who told him the Toffees would be facing a two-point deduction, prompting him to contact the league about whether there had been a leak.
Although he admitted that there would have been an issue about “competitive integrity” had anyone inside the club been aware of the ruling before they beat the Clarets 1-0, the governing body has rejected that possibility as it insisted only the Blues’ lawyers could have potentially known the outcome.
“The Premier League have said the club would not know,” said Maguire. “The only people that potentially would have known would have been the lawyers acting on behalf of both sides. Lawyers follow the rules of embargo, they are professional. They wouldn’t have leaked it.
“In the eyes of the Premier League, nobody at the club would have known. It could be that the people that contacted me might have just done their sums. I’d done my sums and thought it would probably be two or three.
“We’ve had a response from the Premier League and I think the Premier League have been fair here. They are confident that the club would not have known anything.“I think if one club does know the information and another doesn’t, that does call into question issues with regards to the competitive integrity of the game, but that has been rejected.”
Everton points deduction leak unlikely
It does seem unlikely that a lawyer, anyone inside the Premier League or on the commission would have leaked the verdict before it was announced on 8 April.
It wouldn’t have been fair on Burnley if that had been the case, but the governing body has moved to reject those claims.
Many people were giving their opinion on how many points the Toffees would be deducted and there’s a chance the people who contacted Maguire just happened to be right in this instance.
There is no doubt that Sean Dyche would’ve set his team up to win that game no matter what the verdict was going to be anyway.
The Blues can now start to look forward after learning about their latest deduction in a bid to secure their Premier League status for next season.
In other Everton news, Pat Nevin has raged over a Toffees development as he shared a “ludicrous” Premier League admission.
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