Arsenal legend claims Man City lawyers will have Premier League “dancing” over FFP charge

Man City’s lawyers will “have the Premier League dancing” in their FFP case after Everton’s points deduction was reduced by four points.

That was the frank verdict of Arsenal legend Ian Wright, with City’s own FFP charges hanging over them as they wait for the results of a Premier League investigation.

The Toffees were hit with a 10 point deduction in November after recording losses in excess of £105million over a three-year period, ending in 2022.

But an independent appeal board reduced the points deduction to six points last week which has bolstered their chances of avoiding relegation from the Premier League.

Man City were charged with more than 115 alleged FFP breaches last year, covering a nine-year period between the 2009/10 and 2017/18 seasons.

Everton situation labeled “embarrassing” as Man City watch on

City deny the charges but a conclusion to the investigation may not arrive until the end of next season. However, they would have been watching Everton’s case with interest and pundits Jamie Carragher and Wright.

“Everton’s points deduction being reduced feels about right,” Carragher said on the Stick to Football podcast.

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“The Premier League are prosecuting them, then it’s going to the Independent Commission, so I think the frustration for the fans is that ‘hang on, the Premier League are the judge and jury here’.

“That was the frustration, they felt like they colluded with the Independent Commission, in terms of getting to the 10 points [deduction].

“It’s never happened before, this is the first time a team has been fined for this, so no one really knows what the right punishment should be.”

Wright added: “Don’t you think, if that’s the case, remember the Premier League made a mistake on two of the charges.

“If you’ve got people who are doing that job, and they’ve got nine to look over or whatever it is, and they get them wrong to the point where they’ve got to give points back – what are Manchester City’s lawyers going to do to people like this? They are going to have them dancing! 

“It’s ridiculous how they can get that wrong. What I think they should have done, personally what should have happened is, they should do what they are doing, ‘right, we are fining you, you are going to get 10 points’.

“Then they [Everton] say, ‘right, we are going to appeal’, let them appeal, then we find out what’s going to happen after the appeal, then you do the judgement.

“How are you going to do it before? Because now, you get into this embarrassing situation.”

Jamie Carragher and Ian Wright were speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet.