By Dr Colm Hickey
The big football news this week has been the docking, by the Premier League, of two points from Everton Football Club for a second breach of Premier League financial rules. The league’s Profit and Sustainability rules (PSR) permit clubs to lose £105m over three years and an independent commission found Everton breached that by £16.6m for the three-year period to 2022-23. The club had a 10-point deduction reduced to six on appeal in February for the three-year period to 2021-22. The commission decided that any breach of PSR justifies a three-point deduction, with an additional two points because Everton’s breach of £16.6m – 15.8% above the £105m threshold – is deemed significant.
However, the commission accepted Everton’s arguments for mitigation in relation to the fact the club had: already been deducted points this season; suffered a loss of revenue because of the suspension of a sponsorship deal with the Russian company USM, and, significantly, made an early admission of guilt. For these reasons, the commission concluded that this merited a two-point reduction in punishment, with a further point for the loss of sponsorship revenue and early admission of guilt.
Everton is, as they say, ‘banged to rights.’ Why? For the simple reason it admitted its guilt. Do you believe that the club was wrong? Are you outraged? Do you think Everton tried to deceive, that it was untruthful? Do you believe that it brought shame upon itself? Do you agree with the Bible in Proverbs 13:5: ‘The righteous hates falsehood, but the wicked brings shame and disgrace’, or do you think it was an innocent breach of financial regulations and not a big thing at all, certainly not deserving of a points deduction? In essence: did Everton cheat? It all comes down to your own idea of morality.
Cheating In Sport
Calling someone a cheat is a way of morally condemning their actions, but like many moral terms it is a difficult word to define. Cheating involves more than violating a rule or in football (a law). Fouling a player is against the laws of football, but it is not cheating. Even a deliberate foul may not necessarily be cheating, although it is against the law, and could result in a penalty or a sending off, which would be the accepted consequence of the action.
So, does cheating have to involve secrecy and deception? For example, taking performance enhancing drugs to improve performance or by submitting ‘clean blood’ to the authorities at the Tour De France? Robert Simon in his book, The Ethics of Sport, defines cheating as ‘a violation of public rules central to a practice in order to gain a competitive advantage that would or could not reasonably be allowed as a general basis for making exceptions.’ That is, it is something you do to gain an unfair advantage over others. So, taking performance enhancing drugs in the Enhanced Games is ok as anyone is allowed to do it, whereas in the Olympics it is considered cheating as no one is allowed to do it.
Cheaters will use spurious arguments to defend their position. ‘Everyone knows that others are doing it’, they might say or, ‘It’s not that bad; it’s a minor breach of the rules’ or ‘It’s a mistake, an administrative error’ or ‘It’s someone else’s fault, it’s not mine.’
Let me pose an issue for you to consider. What if a club deliberately heavily waters the pitch before a match against a fleet-footed, quick ball passing team? By watering the pitch, it will slow the opposition down. Is that cheating? Absolutely not. Both teams will have to play on the same pitch. It is equal for both. Is it ethical? Absolutely not, because the club seeks to gain an advantage through the manipulation of a situation that otherwise would not have happened.
The issue of cheating in sport, therefore, is that sports cheats deliberately and intentionally exempt themselves from the public standards such as rules and principles that any other reasonable or impartial person would want applied deliberately to gain a competitive advantage without any justification for their action.
Off the field issues
Cheating can occur as much if not more off the pitch than on it. Drug taking is one obvious issue directly related to players, as is the offering or taking a bribe to affect the match. Off the field issues could include corruption in awarding stadia to major games or indeed the awarding of World cup or UEFA tournaments. Yet, whether it happens on or off the pitch, the issue of cheating remains the same and its ramifications are significant.
To return to Everton. A club statement said: ‘While the club’s position has been that no further sanction was appropriate, the club is pleased to see that the commission has given credit to the majority of the issues raised by the club, including the concept of double punishment, the significant mitigating circumstances facing the club due to the war in Ukraine, and the high level of co-operation and early admission of the club’s breach.’
Yet are we looking at only one club? Sadly, and predictably, ‘No’. Elsewhere Nottingham Forest has been deducted four points and have submitted an appeal and Leicester City leaders of the Championship has also been charged by the Premier League for allegedly breaking spending rules during their last three seasons in the top flight. In February, Manchester City was charged with breaching Financial Fair Play regulations by the Premier League, having reportedly committed broken regulations ‘around 100 times.’ The club failed to provide ‘accurate financial information’ for at least nine seasons over a four-year period and failing to comply with UEFA’s financial fair play rules over a five-year period. It was also found not to have co-operated with the investigation which started in December 2018.
‘Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live.’
Under Premier League rules, the club will not be able to appeal the sanctions in the Court of Arbitration for Sport so the chances of the decision being brushed off as it was last time seem less likely. In a statement, Manchester City said it was ‘surprised’ by the charges ‘given the extensive engagement and vast amount of detailed materials that the EPL has been provided with.’ It said it had a ‘comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position’ and ‘look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.’
The news also comes just a couple of weeks after boasting of earning the most revenue of any club in world football. The process of prosecution with ‘will be expensive and it will drag on’ for some time as the club will continue to deny the allegations. The charge sheet itself includes five years in which City are accused of refusing to assist with their inquiry despite refuting the claim.
Since 2008, just a year before the offences are said to have begun, the club has enjoyed the most successful spell in its history, winning six Premier League titles, six League Cups, and two FA Cups.
This takes us back to our beginning, the docking of points from Everton for a breach of financial fair play. Did Everton cheat? Did it seek to violate public rules in order to gain a competitive advantage? Everton unsurprisingly says no. Nottingham Forest admitted the same offence but denied any cheating, Manchester City denies any wrong doing as does Leicester City.
Yet is it plausible that they are all truthful? Is it conceivable that they are somehow injured parties? You will no doubt have reached a conclusion. I know I have. To return to the Bible, in Proverbs, 15:27 :‘Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live.’ What do you think?