Leicester City points deduction: Top source has news after big twist
League has likely appealed against the latest decision in their profit and sustainability (PSR) case.
That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the governing body is facing an “enormously high hurdle” in its bid to get the ruling overturned.
Leicester were charged in March with a breach of the Premier League’s PSR rules for 2022-23 after reporting losses of £89.7million for that year alone, with top-flight sides only permitted to lose £105million over a rolling three-year period.
But they argued they were no longer a Premier League club when they submitted their accounts on 30 June last year following their relegation to the Championship.
An independent commission dismissed those claims in July and ruled they could be charged by the Premier League.
But Leicester confirmed in a statement on 3 September their appeal against that ruling had been successful, handing them a significant boost in their bid to avoid a points deduction
The Lawyer reported on 16 October the governing body is now readying its legal teams to submit an appeal against the decision.
Premier League has submitted appeal against Leicester City ruling
“I think they probably have appealed,” Borson told Football Insider.
“It’s an odd story to come out if it isn’t true. It is something I heard on the grapevine about two weeks ago.
“When I heard it, I was very sceptical and I couldn’t see how it was true given the hurdles the Premier League will need to jump to win that case.
“Leicester had a disciplinary hearing, they lost that hearing and appealed it themselves. The appeal board that had two former Court of Appeal judges on it decided that they had won.
“The way the Premier League rules work are that, if you want to challenge an appeal board, you have to go to arbitration, so it’s known as a Rule X arbitration.
“Within there, it tells you the ways in which you can challenge it. You can’t just say ‘We don’t like the decision, so we’re challenging it’. There is no inherent right to an appeal of an appeal board.
“You have to say it’s either fraud, so the appeal board was acting fraudulently, that’s obviously not the case so you can forget that.
“Or that they acted in bad faith, again you can forget that. Or that they misapplied the law. That is possible, but there are three of them on the panel, so it’s pretty unlikely they all got the law wrong, particularly as the law was presented to them by the barristers in the room.
“They were deciding between two arguments from top barristers, so I think the likelihood that they are challenging on an application of law point is unlikely.
