‘Man City are going to end up in the Conference!’ - Boxing legend & big Everton fan Tony Bellew brands Premier League ‘a disgrace’ for punishing Toffees & Nottingham Forest before tackling 115 charges at the Etihad

The Toffees have been stung with a 10-point penalty this season for breaching Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), which was reduced to six on appeal. They are waiting to discover the outcome of another investigation into supposed financial mismanagement, while Nottingham Forest have had four points deducted as they tumble into the Premier League relegation zone.

Boxing legend and passionate Everton fan Bellew has been left baffled by the entire saga, telling talkSPORT: “You’ve got a team in Manchester City who have had more charges than I can possibly think of, and there’s no charges coming to them. It’s an absolute disgrace and then Nottingham Forest, who have done far worse than us but get less of a points deduction. It doesn’t make any sense. The Premier League are not doing anything right and they’re destroying football, single-handedly. It’s just so difficult. We could take another points deduction and where’s the justice in that? If they did take another two points off us – that’s eight. You’ve taken four off Forest who have got more [charges] than us.”

Bellew added on the City case, with it emerging in February 2023 that the reigning Premier League champions faced over 100 FFP charges: “It’s a mess and I don’t know the way out of it now. Where does it end? Man City are going to end up in the Conference if this comes off. You can’t have 115 charges, you done us for 10 points. A club could go into administration – that means you’ve failed on every level and you only get nine points [deducted]. They took 10 from us, which is insane. It’s a disgrace.”

The Premier League claims that a date has been set for City’s hearing, but that has not been revealed to the public. The rules regarding FFP and PSR in the English top-flight are also about to be revised, which could work in favour of City and big-spending rivals Chelsea – while the likes of Newcastle and Aston Villa may avoid the need to part with prized assets.