Guardian Sport NetworkSoccerEverton have followed in the footsteps of Sunderland, Manchester United, Arsenal, Middlesbrough and Portsmouth
By Richard Foster for The Football Mine
Everton’s 10-point deduction is the heaviest punishment in the history of the English top flight, but they are not the first club to be docked points.
Sunderland set the trend, relieved of two points in the 1890-91 season when they fielded an unregistered player, Ned Doig. The Scottish goalkeeper went on to become a Sunderland legend, making more than 450 appearances for the club across 14 seasons and winning four league titles. He was also part of the Sunderland team that won the “World Championship” – a match pitting the Scottish title-winners against the English champions that featured 22 Scottish players.
A hundred years passed before the next deduction, imposed on Arsenal and Manchester United following a 21-man brawl at Old Trafford in October 1990. The referee did not send off any players and just two were booked on the day – Anders Limpar and Nigel Winterburn – but harsher punishments followed a few weeks later.
Arsenal were deducted two points because they had been involved in a similar incident the year before against Norwich City at Highbury, while United had one removed. Nevertheless, George Graham’s side coasted to the title, finishing seven points clear of second-place Liverpool having only lost one game all season.
Two clubs have been docked points in the Premier League era and both were subsequently relegated. Middlesbrough were handed a three-point deduction in the 1996-97 season and Portsmouth were deducted nine points in 2009-10. Everton’s penalty is the largest of the three but, with 26 games remaining, they have more time to climb up the table. Middlesbrough had just 16 games left and Portsmouth only eight.
For Middlesbrough the dreaded asterisk appeared against their name when they failed to fulfil their fixture against Blackburn, pulling out of a match on Saturday 21 December with only 24 hours’ notice. It seems inconceivable that this could happen at the top level of English football, but Middlesbrough claimed injuries, suspensions and a bout of flu left them with 23 players unavailable. The club’s doctor was concerned that more players would fall ill in the 24 hours before the match, telling chief executive Keith Lamb and manager Bryan Robson: “I am uncertain how many of the 17 fit players will be fit tomorrow due to the virus.”
On the back of this advice, Lamb rang the Premier League on the Friday morning before the match was due to take place and asked for guidance on whether it could be postponed. He explained that Middlesbrough only had 17 fit players, that three of them were goalkeepers, and five were youngsters who had never featured in the first-team squad. Though they were not granted permission to postpone the game as they could have put out a team, regardless of its strength, Boro cancelled, a decision that ultimately backfired.
The three-point deduction took effect in January, leaving them bottom of the Premier League table. However, a team boasting Juninho, Emerson and Fabrizio Ravanelli responded well in adversity, collecting 22 points from their next 14 matches. Eventually, the Blackburn game was rescheduled for 8 May, three days before the final day of the season. It ended in an anticlimactic goalless draw. Boro also drew their final fixture away at Leeds – but it was not enough to rescue them from relegation as Coventry pulled off a surprising win away at Tottenham.
The points deduction, which Robson called “the harshest penalty that could possibly have been given to this football club,” proved crucial. But for the three docked points, Middlesbrough would have finished in 14th position – level on points with Blackburn. They scored 51 goals that season – the sixth highest in the division and four more than fifth-placed Aston Villa – yet were relegated.
If Middlesbrough’s penalty seemed harsh, Portsmouth’s plight was self-inflicted. They finished eighth in the league and won the FA Cup in the 2007-08 season but things took a turn for the worse in the next few years. Within the space of six months the club’s ownership changed hands three times and this dangerous game of pass the parcel resulted in the club entering administration in February 2010.
In the summer of 2009, Sulaiman Al-Fahim (who had been involved in the purchase of Manchester City by Sheikh Mansour the previous year) bought the club from Alexandre Gaydamak for £60m. After less than six weeks in charge, Al-Fahim was bought out by Ali Al-Faraj, who was replaced by businessman Balram Chainrai within a few months. Shortly afterwards Chainrai placed the club into administration, leading to a nine-point deduction in March 2010.
On the pitch, Portsmouth had started the 2009-10 season disastrously, losing their first seven matches – the joint worst start in Premier League history – and were rooted to the bottom of the table from the third week of the season onwards. When the penalty was handed down on 17 March it cast them even further adrift, 14 points shy of safety.
They beat Hull City in their first match after the deduction and picked up nine more points in their remaining matches – including a victory against Everton at Fratton Park on the final day of the campaign – but their inevitable relegation had been confirmed by mid-April. Pompey finished on 19 points, 11 behind the other relegated clubs, Hull and Burnley, and 16 behind 17th-placed West Ham.
Despite the financial turmoil and their wretched league form, Portsmouth somehow managed to reach the FA Cup final in 2010, which they lost 1-0 to Chelsea. In the next couple of years, they suffered more points deductions and were relegated from the Championship and League One in successive seasons. They are currently top of League One, having gone unbeaten so far this season.
Coincidentally, Middlesbrough also reached the FA Cup final in 1997 and, like Portsmouth in 2010, lost to Chelsea. They were also beaten finalists in the League Cup, losing to Leicester after a replay. Boro did, though, bounce back to the Premier League the season after their points deduction, securing promotion under Robson and enjoying their longest post-war spell of 11 consecutive seasons in the top division.
Any Everton fans looking for a sliver of consolation from the stories of previous deductions might hope their side can go on a cup run. But, with 26 league games still to play, their primary target is to maintain their top-flight status for a 71st consecutive season.
This is an article from The Football Mine
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