Harsh punishment sums up difference between the haves and have-nots

AS Everton wonder whether their season can absorb the body blow of a 10-point deduction, they will not need reminding such a punishment would have been enough to bury eight clubs last season.

- Gideon Brooks

The irony will also not be lost on anyone at Goodison Park that a ninth, Chelsea, would have kept their Premier League status intact by goal difference alone.

That is the same Chelsea who are aiming high again after a blizzard of spending that may have been within the rules but did not feel like it.

The same Chelsea who are the subject of an investigation into alleged breaches of financial rules in the Roman Abramovich era.

It is alleged they benefited from tens of millions of pounds in payments routed through offshore vehicles belonging to the Russian.

Everton will no doubt feel aggrieved, bordering on furious, that amid all this it is they who have been hammered for what looks like a minor breach of the rules.