What are the biggest football points deductions in the Premier League, English Football League and Europe?
Everton’s 10 point penalty issued on November 17, 2023 was the largest ever handed out in the Premier League era and just the third to be given to a club playing in England’s top-flight since 1992.
However, after the Toffees successful appeal on February 26, 2024 saw the penalty reduced to six points. The Merseysiders now have some daylight between the bottom three.
Biggest Premier League Points Deductions
Everton do still technically boast the biggest points deduction in Premier League history. Nonetheless, having it reduced puts another club top of the pile.
Portsmouth were deducted 9 points for entering administration in 2010, as the south coast side built up a huge debt of £65m after a series of successful seasons prior to that, including winning the FA Cup in 2008. Pompey finished the season bottom of the table on just 19 points and haven’t returned to the Premier League since.
Middlesbrough are the only other side to be hit with a points deduction but there’s was not owing to poor club finances. In the 1996/97 season, a virus wiped out over two-thirds of the first-team with a fixture against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on the horizon. Boro essentially postponed the game themselves and the Premier League hit the Teesiders with a 3-point deduction, thus relegating them come May 1997.
🚨🔵 Official: Everton points deduction reduced to 6 points, Premier League statement confirms. pic.twitter.com/j30KrvTHBh
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 26, 2024
Biggest Points Deductions In The English Football League
Everton, Middlesbrough and Portsmouth may be the only Premier League sides to have been handed points deductions, but it has been a much more common trait in the EFL in recent years. Luton Town were hit the hardest after they were deducted a whooping 30 points for two separate offence. The first was for not leaving administration properly and the other for illegal payments to agents.
The likes of Bournemouth, Derby, Leeds and Rotherham have also been punished:
- Luton Town – 30 points – 2008/09
- Derby County – 21 points – 2021/22
- Rotherham United – 17 points – 2008/09
- Bournemouth – 17 points – 2008/09
- Leeds United – 15 points – 2007/08
Biggest Points Deductions In European Football
Clubs across Europe have often been at the centre of controversy, most notably Serie A sides who were at the centre of the 2006 Calciopoli scandal. The news rocked Italian football with Juventus eventually being relegated from the top-flight, although their points deduction was reduced from 30 to 9.
The only other notable side in Europe to be hit with a points deduction is German side Arminia Bielefeld. They were caught up in a bribery scandal in 1971 but their penalty was fairly tame when compared to the likes of Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio:
- Milan – 30 points – 2005/06
- Fiorentina – 30 points – 2005/06
- Lazio – 30 points – 2005/06
- Arminia Bielefeld – 19 points – 1971/72
- Genoa – 18 points – 1959/60
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