Leicester’s accounts showed they were on course to breach EFL rules by the end of the season, so the league told the Foxes to submit a business plan to ensure their compliance.
The club felt it was unfair, given they were in the Premier League for the majority of the time and the EFL rules did not apply, with an independent club financial reporting panel finding in their favour in March.
They were then charged with breaking profit and sustainability rules later that month. They were put under a transfer embargo before Leicester started “urgent” legal proceedings against the Premier League and EFL.
The club said an embargo was “both restrictive and premature, with more than a quarter of the club’s 2023-24 reporting period remaining”. Those proceedings remain open, with Leicester’s options all on the table.
Two weeks later the Foxes announced losses of £89.7m for 2022-23, although Leicester will have “add backs”, including spending on their women’s team and the academy, which will bring their losses down in the Premier League’s calculations.
It means the £215.3m of losses over the last three years is not the precise figure they will be judged on.
Because Leicester were not part of the Premier League when the new “standard directions” were adopted, which also prescribe a 12-week timeline when cases should be heard, an independent commission will set the timescale for their PSR hearing.
It has already gone beyond the end of the season and they will be a Premier League club before the EFL can do anything themselves, if there are breaches for 2023-24.
That means any investigation is likely to be passed to the Premier League, and there could be a separate second charge if it is ruled Leicester are in breach.
There is a precedent, albeit a different situation, with Sheffield United being docked two points by the EFL in April while a Premier League club.
The Blades will start next season on minus two points after defaulting on payments to other clubs during the 2022-23 season, when they won promotion from the Championship.
The EFL will always defend its position and, with the clubs having agreed the rules, it is the league’s responsibility to apply them.
Yet, there are still too many unknowns in Leicester’s case – and still time for them to avoid another breach – to say exactly what will happen.