Stefan Borson delivers emphatic verdict after stunning turnaround

Leicester were accused in March of breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) for 2022-23 after reporting losses of £89.7m for that year alone, with top-flight sides only allowed to lose £105m over a rolling three-year period.

But they argued they were no longer a Premier League club when they filed their accounts on June 30 last year following relegation to the Championship.

An independent commission rejected those allegations in July and ruled they could be charged by the Premier League.

But Leicester confirmed in a statement on September 3 that their appeal against that decision had been successful, meaning they will not face a points deduction for the breach in 2022-23.

In its ruling, the independent panel said the PSR rules “are, in relevant parts, far from well-designed”, while the Premier League admitted it was “surprised and disappointed” by the decision.

Leicester City and Premier League face high-profile legal panel

But Borson insisted the regulator should not be surprised by the panel’s analysis or suggest it was wrong in any way.

“I think the surprise was that there was an appeal happening,” Borson said Football Insider.

“There was no press coverage, so it happened suddenly.

“When you read the appeals board’s decision, it seems very logical and it was a very high quality appeals board.

“The people who were on that panel, two of them are former Court of Appeal judges. It was a very high-quality legal panel. The other individual who was on the panel was a KC, so it was a three-lawyer panel.

“Despite the Premier League’s announcement about how disappointed they were, I don’t think they can claim it’s a perverse decision in any way from a legal perspective.

“It’s very difficult to imagine a higher quality set of lawyers in that room. You had Nick De Marco acting for Leicester, the Premier League had a KC and a junior lawyer, and you had a three-man appeals board that was of the highest quality.

“I think it would be wrong for anyone to be surprised or to say that the analysis done by that panel was somehow wrong.

“The reality is that the consequence of their decision is that it confirms that the Premier League rules on this point were in fact unambiguous, but unambiguous in the wrong sense, so Leicester managed to find a loophole in the rules.”

In other news, Everton fans were left shocked by the news of Leicester’s points deduction.

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