Everton fined and banned from signing academy players

(Reuters) – Everton have been fined 500,000 pounds ($655,350) by the Premier League and banned from registering some academy players for two years after breaching young player recruitment rules by offering prohibited inducements.

The Premier League said in a statement that Everton admitted to offering inducements to a player and his family to encourage him to register with the club.

When presented with evidence by the Premier League, Everton also set up an internal inquiry that discovered similar misconduct in relation to six other youngsters, the statement added.

The league fined Everton and banned them from registering players aged 10-18 who have been registered with other Premier League or English Football League clubs in the previous 18 months.

The club will also have to pay compensation to the former clubs of two academy players.

Everton said in a statement https://www.premierleague.com/news/902823?sf201854603=1 that it had accepted the penalties and apologised.

“We have already commenced a full review of our Academy operations and are committed to ensuring that issues like this do not happen again at Everton,” the club said.

The fine is five-times that handed down to city rivals Liverpool in April 2017 for a similar offence. Liverpool were also given a two-year ban, the second year of which was suspended for three years.

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)