Sean Dyche: Everton manager says “leave the game alone” after sin-bin plans

Everton are 19th in the Premier League table, five points adrift of safety, after being docked 10 points for breaching financial rules.

Former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness says the top-flight’s Financial Fair Play rules are not “fit for purpose” and feels a “new formula” needs to be found to create less “mess”.

Wyness was asked for a solution and told BBC Radio Merseyside: “There are many different factors in football, but trying to get to some kind of wage cap or a definite cost is the only way that is going to happen.

“It has been tried in American sport and the closest way we can get to some kind of balance within the game. It is a very difficult problem.”

This season in America’s NFL, teams were given a salary cap, external limit of £177.6m that they can spend on players on their rosters.

The Premier League did not respond to comment when asked by BBC Sport.

Meanwhile, Everton will submit a formal appeal to the independent commission which handed them the biggest sporting sanction in top-flight history before Friday’s deadline.

Their case relates to interest payments on the building of the club’s new £760m stadium at Bramley Moore Dock, which they believe were permissible ‘add backs’ for profit and sustainability calculations in the 2021-22 financial year.

But the commission disagreed and did not accept the club’s claim of mitigating factors.

“I would be very surprised if there wasn’t some reduction in the penalty,” added Wyness, who was in charge at Everton between 2004 and 2009.

“I am hoping they see the flaws in their decision-making – they did not accept the mitigating factors correctly, they make it a suspended points deduction and there is a bigger financial penalty. It should be reduced at the very least.

“The problem is that Everton did admit guilt so that should be taken into account. It may not have been the biggest breach ever because even £1 [over] is a breach, so that has to be accepted.”

Dyche added: “The club have got it in hand and doing what they need to do. Who knows what will happen after the first part, we can only do what we can do.”