Everton transfer window hindered by financial fair play concerns

Everton’s lack of summer transfer activity was reportedly due to Financial Fair Play (FFP) issues.

After years of unchecked spending under Farhad Moshiri, the Merseyside club are now paying the price.

According to a report by Mail Sport, the Merseyside club allegedly breached the financial rules last season. An independent commission will supposedly review the team’s issue in October.

The Toffees found themselves in a relegation battle at the end of the 2022/23 campaign. Although they did avoid the drop down to the Championship, the three clubs not so lucky threatened Everton with a lawsuit.

Leeds, Leicester, and Southampton were relegated and asked the Premier League for compensation from the Merseyside club. This is, however, assuming that Everton will be found guilty of the financial issue next month.

Club sold two players on deadline day

Mail Sport reporter Sami Mokbel recently discussed Everton’s summer transfer business on the It’s All Kicking Off podcast. “My understanding of that is the way they are having to structure the deals, to navigate through this season’s FFP regulations, meaning that a lot of the money, the bulk of the money that they would have to pay the selling club for said player, has been moved on to pay for next season,” claimed Mokbel.

The club did recently bring in striker Beto from Udinese in a deal worth around $27 million. However, the deal was supposedly structured to allow Everton to pay a large chunk of the fee at a later date.

The acquisition was also somewhat offset by the selling of Alex Iwobi and Thomas Cannon. The duo were sold on deadline day for a combined fee of around $37 million.

Dyche claims that Everton reinvesting is reliant on Financial Fair Play

Prior to their moves away from the team, Everton manager Sean Dyche was asked about the decision to sell the duo and if he will be able to reinvest in the squad. “If anything happens with those two players we’ll quickly assess what we can do next,” stated Dyche. “To be clear, we are not waiting for that to happen and then going to search; we are already in line.”

“The money will be decided by the powers that be,” continued the coach. “What comes in, what is available to go out.

One thing for fans to be aware of is that whatever money you get, you don’t get it in one go. It is chunked down into different payments and different plans and we have had to work hard to find different ways for that to work for us, so that has to be factored in as well.”

In the end, Everton did not bring in any additional players on deadline day. The club then fought back to a 2-2 draw Saturday morning against Sheffield United.

After going down just prior to halftime, the Toffees scored in the second half to share the points on the day. It was their first point of the current Premier League season.

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