Everton have been ordered by the courts to pay Burnley nearly £40m in compensation following legal action being bought against them by The Clarets.

in Late 2023, Everton were deducted deducted points for breaches of the Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) in the 2021/22 season. This was reduced to six points on appeal in early 2024. The points deduction was applied to the 2023/24 season.

In 2021/22, Burnley were relegated, finishing 4 points behind Everton. Burnley’s claim was that had the deduction been applied in the season the offence took place, then Everton would have been relegated and Burnley would have stayed in the Premier League.

The difference in financial reward between playing in the Premier League and Championship is huge, with the play-off final often dubbed the “£200m game”. And it is based on that “loss of earnings that Burnley sued Everton.

The decision, which Everton plan to appeal, could have wider ramifications in English football. Most notably with Manchester city.

City face 115 charges, many of which are for financial misconduct between 2009 and 2018. Were they to be found guilty of the charges and be given a points deduction for the 2026/27 season, Premier League clubs could point to the decision in Burnley v Everton as a precedent that City should pay them financial compensation for any loss in revenue for those seasons they committed offences.

Premier League teams get “prize money” depending on where they finish. For 2025/25, Liverpool as champions earned £2.7m more than Arsenal in 2nd place. That might not seem much, but were Man City to be deducted enough points to have finished 2 or 3 places lower per season, across multiple seasons, the compensation would quickly grow to 8 figures.

The courts would then have to factor in loss of revenue from sponsorship and the huge one – Champions League football.

In 2015/16, Man City finished 4th, level on points with Manchester United but above them on goal difference. The next year they earned over £50m from being in the Champions League. Then in 2016/17, City finished 3rd, 3 points ahead of Arsenal in 5th. They earned over £60 million from playing Champions League football.

Based on the Burnley judgement, both Arsenal and Manchester United could make the case that they suffered a loss of earnings due to Man City finishing ahead of them, if any points deduction relates to offences that season and would take Man City below them. And that does not account for any case which both clubs may be able to make from ticket sales and sponsorship.

The money will never soften the blow of being denied success due to a club financially doping, however collectively it could be a huge financial blow for City.

We all await with bated breath for the result of the Man City case, which has gone on far to long. But even when the verdict is announced, that will not be the end of it.

City will likely appeal and, depending on what seasons the point deductions are from, Premier League clubs will be lining up for their slice of compensation.

Keenos

A few days ago Arsenal were heavily linked with 18-year-old PSG defender Emmanuel Mbemba. At the same time, it was revealed that Arsenal also made enquiries for Elijah Upson and Sam Amissah.

This has got a few people head scratching as to why we are targeting 3 teenage central defenders.

Succession planning and harvesting teenage talents to profit off in the future seems to be the two main reasons why we are targeting the trio, but I actually think there is a much more reasonable explanation – the U21s lack decent defenders.

Per Mertesacker was recently let go as Academy Manager. After some initial great work helping to stabilise the club post-Arsene Wenger, the academy has stagnated.

Whilst we have had high profile players such as Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri break through to the first team squad, on the whole the academy is lacking,. We certainly do not produce the volumes of players to sell on that others do.

Considering we have the footballing breading ground of London, our Academy should be preforming a lot better than what it is.

This season we finished 14th in the PL2 – which was topped by Chelsea, with Manchester United coming 2nd and Manchester City coming 3rd. This is not a great showing for our U21s. We were also behind Fulham, Tottenham, Crystal Palace and West Ham.

The U18s did not fair much better, finishing 10th in the South league behind the likes of West Ham, Crystal Palace, Tottenham and Chelsea.

We have not won the FA Youth Cup since 2009 (Jack Wilshere’s year), and our last showing in the final saw us thrashed 5-1 by West Ham in 2023. Our only other final since we won saw us lose to Chelsea 7-1 in 2018.

We have one of the biggest football talent catchment areas in the world. London is huge and these days scouts from Liverpool, Man City and Manchester United are sent to the capital to try and capture talents. Whilst the senior team might be doing bits, the youth sides are not, and that is a big problem when trying to attract the best players of the next generation.

The issue of attracting the best young players is highlighted by the case of Josh Acheampong.

The 20-year-old defender played 30 games last season and is now being heavily linked to Arsenal as a replacement for Ben White, but questions should be asked why he was not part of the Hale End Academy – Acheampong joined Chelsea at the age of 8 (in 2014), but was born a stones throw from Hale End and went to school less than 2-miles away from our Academy.

16-year-old defender Marli Salmon is clearly a talent, and has been in and around the first team this season. But beyond him, there is not much in defence in the academy – in 28 U18 PL games last season, we conceded 57 goals.

Those currently in the U21s have shown themselves not to be up to scratch at that level and, beyond Salmon, the U18 crop have struggled at their level. Those U18s will struggle further when they go up an age group.

So we would be in a situation where no matter how good our midfielders and attack is at youth level, these players are being undermined and their development stunted by having a poor defence behind them.

With the cupboard so bare, the club has little choice but to go out to the market.

Emmanuel Mbemba is highly rate throughout Europe and will certainly be one that would hope to see some first team training time whilst playing for the U21s.

Meanwhile, Elijah Upson (son of Matthew) and Sam Amissah are both without a contract having decided not to renew with Tottenham and Fulham respectively – it is important to know that they were not released, but instead opted not to sign on. It is likely that Arsenal had a word, and they have decided to join us.

Both Upson and Amissah would be an upgrade on anything we have in our U21s. The pair have played through the England age groups and in Amissah’s case, have been on the bench for senior Premier League games. They would provide a good backbone alongside Mbemba and Salmon.

You never really know how a player might progress, but these guys are certainly being bought to bolster our U21 team rather than to come in for the first team. If they then become long-term options for the first team or generate cash by being sold on, then that is a bonus for the future.

Keenos