Leicester have made ‘very strange’ decision, they could have landed 12-point deduction
Leicester City have made a “very strange” decision to appeal against their points deduction.
That is according to former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the Foxes could have landed a 12-point deduction.
Leicester were charged last May with an alleged breach of the EFL’s financial rules in their promotion-winning campaign back to the Premier League in 2023-24.
Following a hearing in November, it was announced on 5 February the East Midlands side have been deducted six points, leaving them now sitting 22nd in the Championship table as they look to avoid back-to-back relegations.
It was confirmed on 19 February Leicester have appealed against the decision to deduct them six points.
- Read More: How Leicester avoided 20-point deduction
Why Leicester have appealed against points deduction
Under the Premier League’s PSR rules, clubs are allowed to lose £105million over a rolling three-year period, but Leicester’s figure was reduced by £22m after spending the 2023-24 season in the Championship.
The commission ruled the Foxes had spent £20.8m over their £83m limit between 2021-22 and 2023-24.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson discussed Leicester’s decision to appeal against their points deduction.
“I think it’s a very strange decision,” said Borson.
“Obviously, we don’t have all the information, and they’ve got a very good KC, who’s been successful before in arguing almost the unarguable case around Leicester. They had a huge success in respect of financial year 2023, where they got off completely.
“That’s obviously emboldened them to try legal arguments to get around what are clear breaches. Now, to me this is a risky game. They’ve got six points right now. It was seven. They were given one point of mitigation back already. That was because they had a positive trend of reducing losses.
“They didn’t have to be given that. I think especially in the context of what happened before an independent commission could have taken a hard view and said, ‘Actually, we don’t believe that that’s sufficient mitigation’. But they did, so they didn’t do that badly from the first hearing.”
How Leicester avoided increased points deduction
Borson admitted Leicester could have received a much larger punishment had the panel decided to follow the EFL rules.
“It could have been worse because they could have looked at the Championship approach, starting in a stricter way around 12 points,” said Borson.
“Now, they looked at it, they did go with the EFL 12-point tariffs, but they found a way to proportionately reduce them down very dramatically to the sorts of levels that were used in the Premier League cases against Everton and Nottingham Forest. That’s how they ended up with six or seven points for a breach of about 25 per cent of their limit.
“They also won on the key argument around 37 months versus 36 months. Had they lost that argument around 37 months, they would have ended up with a breach that was double what they ended up with and, therefore, I think that they would have had a much larger fine.
“On top of that, they probably would have failed for the season just gone. So, against that backdrop, I’m surprised that they’re giving it a go.”
In terms of other similar cases, Everton were previously docked a total of eight points after being charged with two separate spending breaches, while Nottingham Forest landed a four-point deduction.
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