Simon Jordan has voiced his disapproval of Leicester City’s legal victory in avoiding punishment for alleged financial rule breaches, while also dismissing the EFL’s response as largely inconsequential.
The Foxes had their appeal against the Premier League upheld earlier this week, securing them from the looming threat of a points deduction.
The crux of the case revolved around Leicester’s relegation and subsequent claim that the Premier League had acted outside its jurisdiction when dealing them a charge over Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) back in March.
In response to the outcome, the EFL released their own statement, airing frustrations with how the case had been handled. They argued that it was unjust for a club to escape punishment simply because of their movement between divisions.
Leicester, having dropped out of the Premier League, effectively became an EFL side during the period in question, complicating the issue.
However, Jordan was blunt in his response to the EFL’s stance during his talkSPORT segment.
“They’ve already lost their case, so they can say what they’ve just said,” he remarked.
“They’ve already lost their argument because Leicester had them over as well in terms of the argument they had no jurisdiction over Leicester.”
Jordan highlighted how Leicester exploited their relegation to avoid handing over their accounts to the EFL.
“When they landed in the EFL after relegation, they had to show their accounts which show what their likely outcomes are for the next 12 months,” Jordan explained.
“They didn’t believe they had to do that because those projections were supposed to be in March of the year [2023], but they weren’t in the EFL in March, so they said: ‘we’re not going to give you those because you don’t have jurisdiction’.”
The former Crystal Palace chairman was critical of Leicester’s manoeuvre, noting that by not submitting their financial projections, the club avoided the need to sell players they might otherwise have had to offload.
“They stole a march, got promoted and won the league. That would have made the EFL bristle,” he added. Jordan pointed out that Leicester’s tactic enabled them to exploit the system to their advantage, leaving the EFL fuming and the Premier League in an uncomfortable position.
While Jordan acknowledged Leicester’s legal brilliance, he remained critical of the outcome.
“Whether you like the rules or not – and I am not a fan of them, I have grown less of a fan of them over a period of time,” he said.
“Fantastic work by the lawyers, and the reasons I had the ire about it yesterday is because I think it is poor – I don’t think it is the way to operate and I think they should have got caught.”
He then compared Leicester’s situation to that of other clubs who have faced sanctions for financial breaches.
“If Everton got caught, Nottingham Forest got caught and they got points sanctions, these guys have done precisely the same thing and all they have done is exploited the incompetence of the drafting.”
Jordan closed with a warning for Leicester, predicting that their finances will face heavy scrutiny in the near future.
“What I think will happen to Leicester is they will be after them for the 23/24 season, because those accounts will have to be produced soon.
“We will have to see if they have got enough juice in their tanks to get around being sanctioned this season still, because the appetite is that the Premier League will not like what they’ve done, you can hear from the EFL they don’t find it particularly amusing either.”